Large trucks are a constant presence on America’s highways, carrying goods between ports, warehouses, farms, factories, and stores. They are also overrepresented in some of the most consequential crashes on U.S. roads, not necessarily because truck drivers are always at fault, but because the size and weight of large trucks can make collisions more severe.
In 2023, 5,472 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Most of those killed were not inside the trucks: 70% were occupants of other vehicles, while 18% were large-truck occupants and 12% were pedestrians, cyclists, or other nonoccupants.
Fatal crashes are also not evenly distributed. A road’s total death count can reflect its length, traffic volume, and the number of states it crosses. A deaths-per-mile measure offers another way to look at risk: It shows where fatal crashes are most concentrated along a route, rather than simply where the most miles of highway exist.
To examine where fatal crashes were most concentrated, Recovery Law Center, a personal injury law firm, reviewed research published by Teletrac Navman, whose team analyzed fatal crash records from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for U.S. numbered highways and interstate routes. The analysis covers 2016 through 2019 and ranks highways by fatalities per mile. While the ranking includes all fatal crashes rather than only truck-involved collisions, many of the highest-ranked routes are major freight corridors that carry substantial commercial truck traffic. Florida Corridors Lead The Ranking Florida highways dominate the upper tier of the list. I-4, US-192, US-92, and I-95 all appear in the top 10. That concentration reflects a mix of dense metro traffic, tourism corridors, commuter routes, and fast-moving interstates.
I-4’s top ranking is especially notable because it is much shorter than many of the national routes on the list. The 132-mile interstate connects Tampa and Daytona Beach and passes through the Orlando area, where Teletrac Navman identified the deadliest city segment on the route. The 25 Deadliest Highways In America This table is based on research published by Teletrac Navman, whose team reviewed fatal crash records from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for U.S. numbered highways and interstate routes. The analysis covers the years 2016 through 2019 and ranks highways by fatalities per mile to identify the most dangerous roadways in the United States. Rank Highway Fatalities Deadliest Rank Move 1 I-4 1.134 Orlando, FL No change 2 I-45 0.913 Houston, TX No change 3 US-192 0.867 Kissimmee, FL No change 4 I-17 0.707 Phoenix, AZ No change 5 US-92 0.706 Tampa, FL New 6 I-12 0.666 Baton Rouge, LA New 7 I-30 0.646 Dallas, TX New 8 I-95 0.637 Jacksonville, FL Down 3 9 I-19 0.631 Sahuarita, AZ New 10 I-85 0.613 Charlotte, NC Up 5 11 I-5 0.609 Los Angeles, CA Up 5 12 I-10 0.597 Houston, TX Down 6 13 I-20 0.594 Dallas, TX Up 1 14 I-35W 0.528 Fort Worth, TX New 15 I-24 0.527 Nashville, TN New 16 I-75 0.521 Atlanta, GA Down 5 17 I-83 0.506 Baltimore, MD New 18 I-26 0.496 North Charleston, SC Down 6 19 I-35E 0.495 Dallas, TX New 20 US-199 0.488 Grants Pass, OR Down 7 21 I-65 0.485 Nashville, TN Down 3 22 US-17 0.462 Charleston, SC Down 2 23 US-11W 0.450 Kingsport, TN New 24 US-175 0.447 Dallas, TX Down 17 25 I-66 0.446 Washington, DC New Texas Highways Appear Throughout The List Texas has several highways in the ranking, including I-45, I-30, I-10, I-20, I-35W, I-35E, and US-175. Many of those routes converge around Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, or El Paso—major population centers that also serve as freight hubs.
I-45 ranked second nationwide, with 0.913 fatalities per mile, and Houston was listed as the deadliest city along the route. I-30 ranked seventh, while I-20 and both I-35 branches also appeared in the top 20.
The Texas results highlight how urban highway segments can drive the concentration of fatalities. A route may span rural and suburban areas, but the highest-risk portions often occur where heavy traffic, frequent merging, commercial activity, and commuter travel overlap. Shorter Highways Can Rank Higher In Deaths Per Mile The ranking methodology favors fatality concentration rather than total fatalities. That distinction matters.
A long interstate may record hundreds of deaths across thousands of miles, but its deaths-per-mile rate may still be lower than that of a shorter highway with repeated fatal crashes in a dense corridor. I-4 illustrates that pattern: It is far shorter than I-10, I-95, or I-5, but it ranked first because deaths were concentrated along a relatively short stretch.
The Federal Highway Administration’s Highway Statistics series tracks road mileage, vehicle miles traveled, and other national roadway measures, underscoring how route length and travel exposure are central to understanding crash risk. Southern and Sun Belt Routes Are Heavily Represented Many of the highest-ranked highways run through the South and Sun Belt, including Florida, Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. These areas include fast-growing metro regions, major freight corridors, and tourist destinations.
I-17 in Arizona ranked fourth, with Phoenix listed as the deadliest city along the route. I-19, another Arizona interstate, ranked ninth. In the Southeast, I-85, I-75, I-26, I-65, US-17, and US-11W all made the list.
The pattern does not mean geography alone causes crashes. Road design, traffic volume, speed, congestion, weather, enforcement, land use, and driver behavior can all shape the risk of fatal crashes. Why Freight Corridors Matter Many of the highways on the list are also key routes for commercial transportation. Interstates such as I-10, I-20, I-30, I-35, I-45, I-65, I-75, I-85, and I-95 carry substantial freight traffic across regional and national supply chains.
That does not mean trucks caused the fatal crashes in this ranking. The data behind the ranking includes all fatal traffic crashes, not only crashes involving commercial vehicles. But when fatal crashes occur on major freight corridors, the consequences can affect more than the people directly involved. Closures can delay emergency response, disrupt commuters, slow freight movement, and create secondary crash risks in surrounding traffic.
FMCSA reported that large truck and bus fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled by all motor vehicles declined from 2018 to 2019, even as 5,237 large trucks and buses were involved in fatal crashes in 2019. What The Rankings Show Beyond The Numbers The highways at the top of the list are not remote stretches where danger is isolated from daily life. Many run through or near major freight, commuter, and tourism corridors, including Orlando, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Tampa, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Charlotte, and Nashville. That overlap matters because the risk on these roads is shaped not only by mileage, but by how many different users depend on the same lanes: local drivers, long-haul truckers, delivery fleets, tourists, commuters, and emergency responders.
For transportation officials, the rankings point to corridors where safety reviews may need to go beyond broad statewide crash trends. A highway with a high fatality rate per mile can signal concentrated danger at specific interchanges, merging areas, work zones, or urban segments where traffic speed, congestion, and differences in vehicle size collide.
On freight-heavy routes, that can mean examining truck parking availability, lane-change patterns near exits, crash histories around distribution hubs, and whether signage or road design gives drivers enough time to react.
After an accident, authorities want to learn how it unfolded and who was at fault. To gather solid evidence, they perform the following steps:
Once the investigation is complete, the legal action that follows can take many forms:
