Fatal accidents instead of total fatalities were used to reach the conclusion that some highways are more deadly than others.
A study of accident data from 250 stretches of U.S. Interstate highways shows that Florida, California, New Jersey, Louisiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Delaware and Tennessee are the top ten states when it comes to fatal crashes on our aging interstate highway system.
To reach this conclusion The Daily Beast looked at five years of accident data from the National Highway Safety Administration of almost 250 stretches of interstate highways to find out which roads are the most deadly, mile-for-mile.
Each interstate was broken into stretches within a single state. Fatal accidents instead of total fatalities were tallied, which was then divided by the number of miles of each state section.
It was not immediately clear if the analysis simply tracks traffic density or whether some roads along with the drivers on them are more dangerous than others. Multiple factors are involved here, including maintenance, cell phone coverage, speed limits, drivers, vehicle age, and local enforcement policies, among others.
Here’s the list:
- 1, I-95, Florida
- 2, I-76, New Jersey
- 3, I-4, Florida
- 4, I-15, California
- 5, I-10, California
- 6, I-59, Louisiana
- 7, I-94, Illinois
- 8, I-93, Massachusetts
- 9, I-95, Delaware
- 10, I-55, Tennessee
- 11, I-12, Louisiana
- 12, I-81, West Virginia
- 13, I-35, Texas
- 14, I-45, Texas
- 15, I-75, Florida
- 16, I-80, California
- 17, I-64, Missouri
- 18, I-10, Arizona
- 19, I-95, New Jersey
- 20, I-80, New Jersey
For statistics on fatal accidents, fatal accidents per mile, and total fatalities for each highway, click here.