This is what I always wonder as well. It seems to me that if we all weren't constantly dividing ourselves by an increasing number of characteristics that are not socioeconomic class, then we would have an enormous group of people working towards the problems that result from socioeconomic differences.

It also just feels like pandering. Now that the problem is framed as racism, politicians can just paint a mural or something and continue to not actually fix anything.

Possibly, though that could miss other correlations that occur with race. I would want a study that also includes location, year of most recent road renovation, local visibility at time of fatality, distance traveled per day by car/bike/foot, and visibility of clothing, just to name a few. That said, putting together a more in-depth dataset may be impossible given the level of information collected. Looking for correlations with race, which is typically recorded in police reports following collisions, is a reasonable first step that can be used to motivate and drive further research.