Which US Interstate Has the Most Fatal Crashes? I-10, I-95, I-40 and More (2020–2024)

Quick answer: Among nine major US interstates, I-10 recorded the most fatal crashes: 1,451 from 2020 to 2024, killing 1,615 people. I-95 was second with 1,289 fatal crashes and 1,425 deaths, and I-40 third with 1,066 fatal crashes and 1,228 deaths. Adjusted for length the order changes: the short I-4 in central Florida recorded about 114 fatal crashes per 100 miles over those five years, far more than any other, followed by I-95 (about 68 per 100 miles), I-5 (about 60) and I-10 (about 59). These figures come from NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), the national census of crashes in which someone died within 30 days. They count recorded fatal crashes, not how risky each road is per mile driven.

Nine interstates compared (2020–2024)

• I-10 (about 2,460 miles, California to Florida): 1,451 fatal crashes, 1,615 deaths
• I-95 (about 1,908 miles, Florida to Maine): 1,289 fatal crashes, 1,425 deaths
• I-40 (about 2,555 miles, California to North Carolina): 1,066 fatal crashes, 1,228 deaths
• I-75 (about 1,786 miles, Florida to Michigan): 934 fatal crashes, 1,076 deaths
• I-5 (about 1,381 miles, California to Washington): 825 fatal crashes, 937 deaths
• I-80 (about 2,900 miles, California to New Jersey): 702 fatal crashes, 787 deaths
• I-70 (about 2,153 miles, Utah to Maryland): 619 fatal crashes, 680 deaths
• I-35 (about 1,569 miles, Texas to Minnesota): 525 fatal crashes, 587 deaths
• I-4 (about 132 miles, Tampa to Daytona Beach): 150 fatal crashes, 161 deaths

Together these nine roads recorded 7,561 fatal crashes and 8,496 deaths in five years. Each has a full page with yearly tables, maps and CSV downloads, for example I-10, I-95, I-5 and I-4.

Per mile: why I-4 and I-95 stand out

Raw totals favour the longest roads, so dividing by length is fairer, though still not a risk rate because traffic volumes differ hugely. Measured as fatal crashes per 100 miles over five years:

• I-4: about 114
• I-95: about 68
• I-5: about 60
• I-10: about 59
• I-75: about 52
• I-40: about 42
• I-35: about 34
• I-70: about 29
• I-80: about 24

I-4 runs through Tampa, Lakeland and Orlando, one of the busiest tourist corridors in the country, and I-95 links almost every large East Coast city. The rural western interstates, I-80 and I-70, record the fewest fatal crashes per mile, although individual crashes there often happen at higher speeds far from hospitals.

Most interstate deaths happen at night and at weekends

This is the clearest pattern in the data. On I-4, I-5, I-35 and I-95, around half of all fatal crashes happened between 10pm and 6am, when traffic is at its lightest. The single busiest hour was 2am on I-5, I-10, I-35 and I-95, and midnight on I-4 and I-75. Saturday or Sunday was the deadliest day on every one of the nine roads, and roughly a third of fatal crashes on each happened at the weekend. Darkness, fatigue, impairment and speed on emptier roads are the usual factors in night-time crashes, although FARS alone cannot say which applied in each case.

Summer is the peak season: August was the worst month on I-5, I-10, I-40 and I-70, July on I-95 and June on I-75 and I-80.

Most were not two-vehicle collisions

On I-5, I-10 and I-95, around six in ten fatal crashes did not begin with a collision between two moving vehicles. FARS groups these together: vehicles that ran off the road, rolled over or hit a fixed object, and people on foot who were struck. Rear-end collisions were the next most common type on every road. That matters for prevention: staying awake, sober and belted protects you in exactly the crashes that dominate these statistics.

Pedestrians on interstates

People on foot are killed on interstates far more often than most drivers expect, usually after a breakdown or a crash. Pedestrians were 23.6% of all deaths on I-5 (221 people) and 21.6% on I-35. I-10 recorded 325 pedestrian deaths and I-95 217. If your car stops on an interstate, stay buckled in with hazard lights on if you cannot get fully off the road, or move well away from traffic behind a barrier, then call 911.

Where along each road

Most fatal crashes concentrate in a few states. Florida accounts for 512 of I-95's fatal crashes and 346 of I-75's. Texas has 398 of I-10's and 286 of I-35's; Arizona and California follow on I-10. California has 538 of I-5's, Tennessee has 314 of I-40's, and on I-70 Colorado and Missouri recorded 157 each. Longer sections inside a state naturally record more, so this is not a ranking of state road safety; for that, see car accidents by US state.

How these numbers were counted

The data is NHTSA FARS for 2020 to 2024, a US government work in the public domain. A crash counts for an interstate when FARS records Interstate as its route and that road as its trafficway; crashes where the interstate is only the second road are not included. FARS covers only crashes in which someone died, so injury and damage-only crashes are not here. Road lengths are approximate, and none of these figures account for how many miles are driven on each road. To look at crashes near your own route, try the route accident history tool, compare states with the accident trends tool, or download the tables from the data page.