The deadliest intersections in America, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Roughly 1 in 4 fatal car crashes in the United States happens at an intersection, according to data from the National Highway Transit Safety Administration — a figure that speaks to the delicate balancing act that intersections require, often involving vehicles on smaller, slower roads entering or crossing larger, faster thoroughfares.
The law firm of Piasta Walker Hagenbush LLC analyzed over 18 years of crash reporting data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System and found more than 142,000 fatal crashes at 136,000 intersections.
However, with nearly 16 million intersections in the continental U.S., that number means fatal crashes happened at less than 0.9% of all intersections. That shrinks to 0.04% of intersections with two or more fatal crashes, and less than 0.01% that have seen enough fatal crashes to qualify as "deadly intersections" — just under 900 such crossings qualify.
So where are the deadliest intersections in America, and what should drivers know about them?
In this analysis, we define a "deadly intersection" as one where at least three fatal crashes occurred from 2004 to 2021. There are 894 such intersections, which accounted for 2,940 fatal crashes and 3,293 deaths in that time period, and while they are spread all over the country, there are a few common characteristics.
