There were nearly 30,000 deaths on Texas roadways between 2010 and 2017 and we are trending in the wrong direction. From an all-time low of about 3,000 in 2010, traffic deaths, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, have climbed back up to about 3,700 in 2017. Pedestrian deaths in particular have increased a staggering 70% in the eight-year period.

We are senselessly losing our family, friends and neighbors. A teacher beloved by his students and admired by his peers. A family of four on the way to the store. A young woman about to be the first in her family to graduate from college. This ongoing tragedy needs our renewed focus.

TxDOT recently committed to a Vision Zero goal of "zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries" in Texas. Their actual estimates of future deaths are less rosy. By 2022, TxDOT expects we may see as many as 4,300 traffic deaths per year, about 600 more than 2017. At best, TxDOT thinks current interventions may only reduce that number by about 2%. Can't we do better?

The greatest opportunity to decrease deaths will eventually be the development and adoption of self-driving vehicles, according to the National Safety Council. That transition, though, is still decades away.

In the meantime, to better understand where future deaths will happen, we need to look back to where they've happened in the past. This is the topic of my own research.

Using a database that tracks traffic deaths in Texas, we can use algorithms to identify hot spots of fatal crashes that we can address.

In Dallas County, which saw a 68% increase in fatal crashes from 2010 to 2016, about one-fourth of all fatal crashes in 2017 occurred in hot spots identified using historical data. This amounts to 63 fatal crashes in 82 miles of roadway.

If we focus on improving safety only in these 82 miles, and in similar hot spots across the state, we might be able to more decisively push the needle in the right direction. Some spots identified by the analysis are surprising and may not be a priority for transportation officials.

Imagine a 15-mile stretch of rural road with no fatal crashes since 2010, except for one bend outside of one small town. Three people have died at that one bend in eight years. This is the case in Leakey, and it's an example of the specific insights that we can now turn into meaningful action.

I have made a version of the analysis available online for anyone to access. The map shows hot spots across Texas identified using fatal crash data from 2010 to 2017.

There are still challenges with this approach. Some hot spots, for example, may reflect dangerous conditions already addressed by TxDOT. Many fatal crashes in Texas are often isolated, making it difficult to find trends. More data and an approach that considers serious non-fatal crashes may help refine the results.

For now, the hot spot analysis identifies specific stretches of road that can be targeted for safety interventions.

We need to set ambitious goals and embrace targeted data-driven opportunities, like those identified by this hot spot analysis, if we hope to achieve TxDOT's goal of a future with no death on Texas roads.

John Menchaca is an M.D. candidate and public health researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.