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MyCrashBFF · Crash Data Journalism

Florida Crash Report

Where, when, and who: how Floridians die on the road — drawn from every fatal crash in the state (2016–2023) and every serious-injury crash (2014–2018). Not opinion: 24,757 fatal crashes and 89,464 severe ones, mapped and counted.

Sources: NHTSA FARS · FDOT All-Crashes · U.S. Census. 24,757 fatal crashes analyzed.

26,605
Floridians killed on the road, 2016–2023
≈ 9 every day
14.7
Deaths per 100k residents / yr
US average ≈ 12.8
2021
Deadliest year: 3,741 deaths
+17% vs 2019
27%
Of road deaths are pedestrians & cyclists
Not in a vehicle

01 · Where

The deadliest roads, intersections, and counties

Shading is the per-capita fatality rate. Toggle the dots for fatal-crash hotspots, chronically dangerous intersections, and pedestrian clusters. Click any table row to find it on the map.

Map shading — deaths / 100k residents / yr

0statewide 14.740+

Point layers

Map legend

  • County shading — deaths per 100k residents / yr
  • Fatal-crash hotspots
  • Chronic dangerous intersections
  • Pedestrian hotspots
Hover a county or dot for detail.

Deadliest county, per capita

Putnam — 38.7 /100k/yr
Map data — accessible text version

The same rankings the map shows above, as text — so screen readers, printouts, and non-JavaScript readers get the full content. Top locations shown.

Deadliest counties per resident (FARS deaths/100k/yr, pop > 30k). The rural inversion.
#CountyPopulationDeaths (8yr)Ratevs state
1Putnam75,95523538.72.6×
2Suwannee46,13014037.92.6×
3Levy46,54513937.32.5×
4Gadsden43,83312335.12.4×
5Hendry43,333118342.3×
6Jackson48,62213233.92.3×
7Okeechobee41,42711133.52.3×
8Columbia73,06318231.12.1×
9Walton86,35419428.11.9×
10Highlands107,61420924.31.7×
11Monroe80,61415023.31.6×
12Marion409,95974322.71.5×
13Volusia590,3571,01021.41.5×
14Wakulla36,4495920.21.4×
15Alachua285,99443919.21.3×
Deadliest road corridors by people killed (FDOT 2014–2018). Deaths/100 = deaths per 100 severe crashes.
#RoadCountyKilledSeriousCrashesDeaths/100
1US 19Pasco8687671012.1
2SR 50Orange7361252913.8
3I 95Palm Beach7360752513.9
4I 295Duval7152146615.2
5US 301Hillsborough6224823526.4
6I 95Broward6065058310.3
7I 95Miami-Dade6055446512.9
8US 19Pinellas6044839715.1
9I 95Brevard5828325922.4
10US 1Monroe5530427520
Most chronically dangerous intersections — by recurring severe crashes (10+). Note the US 19 (Pasco) and US 41 / US 301 (Manatee) clusters.
#IntersectionCountySevereSeriousKilled
1Sr 70 × Us 41Manatee24322
2Sr 54 × Trinity BlvdPasco21243
3Darlington Rd × Us 19Pasco20271
457th Ave W × Us 41Manatee20241
5Sr 684 × Us 41Manatee19240
615th St E × Us 301Manatee18251
726th St W × Sr 684Manatee18240
8Florida Blvd × Us 41Manatee18201
9Sunray Dr × Us 19Pasco17281
10Sr 54 × Starkey BlvdPasco17211
Pedestrian crash hotspots — severe pedestrian crashes clustered within ~110m (FDOT 2014–2018).
#LocationCountyPed crashesSeriousKilled
1Indiantown Rd W & Hepburn AvePalm Beach523
2Us 90 & New Warrington RdEscambia532
354th Ave N & 28th St NPinellas532
4Biscayne Blvd & 123rd St NeMiami-Dade541
5Us 441 & Oak Ridge RdOrange541
6Fowler Ave E & Nebraska Ave NHillsborough560
7Sr 842 & 7th Ave NwBroward550
8Us 41 & Commons WayLee423
9Nw 22nd Ave & Nw 28th StMiami-Dade413
10Sr 704 & Haverhill RdPalm Beach413

02 · When

Time is the other map

Fatal crashes cluster hard in time — the deadliest single stretch is Saturday evening, and the toll spiked during the pandemic even as traffic thinned.

A decade and a half of loss

FL traffic deaths per year, 2010–2023 — flat, then a sharp climb to a pandemic peak

Deadliest day of the week

Fatal crashes by day, 2016–2023

Deadliest hour of the day

Fatal crashes by hour — the evening into night is the danger window

The week in one picture

Fatal crashes by day × hour. Darker = deadlier. Hover any cell.

03 · Who

Who Florida loses

Of 26,605 people killed in 2016–2023, most weren't strangers in another car. More than a fifth were on foot, nearly three-quarters were male, and over half of killed vehicle occupants weren't buckled.

Age of the people killed

Median age 44 · the deadliest decade of life is the late 20s and early 30s

Which road user was killed

Share of the 26,605 deaths, by person type

57%

of killed vehicle occupants weren't wearing a seatbelt (of those whose belt use was recorded). About 1 in 7 was thrown from the vehicle.

50%

of killed motorcyclists wore no helmet. Florida repealed its universal helmet law in 2000 — the toll shows up here.

73%

of the dead were male. Young men are the most over-represented group on Florida's fatal-crash rolls.

41%

of killed drivers who were tested were legally drunk (BAC 0.08+) — a leading, preventable cause.

04 · How

What actually kills people here

Florida's deaths aren't mostly car-versus-car. More than a quarter are people on foot or on a bike — the state is consistently among the nation's worst for pedestrians.

What the victim struck first

First harmful event, fatal crashes (FARS 2016–2023)

Factors in serious crashes

Share of killed/serious-injury crashes flagged (FDOT 2014–2018)

Alcohol rises with the moon

Share of fatal crashes that hour involving a drinking driver

Where motorcycles dominate the toll

Motorcycle-involved share of serious crashes, by county (vs 14.6% state)

05 · Myth vs. data

It isn't the rain, and it isn't strangers far from home

77%

of fatal crashes happen in clear weather. Only about 6% are in rain. Good conditions breed speed and inattention — the danger isn't the storm.

55%

happen in the dark — and a quarter of all fatal crashes are on roads with no street lighting at all, though far fewer people drive at night.

27%

of road deaths are people not in a car — pedestrians and cyclists. Florida's built environment puts them in harm's way.

20%

of night-time fatal crashes involve alcohol (9pm–6am), peaking near 1 in 3 at 2am. Daytime, it's a fraction of that.

06 · The worst days

Single crashes that killed three or more

A reminder that some "hotspots" are one catastrophe, not a chronic pattern. These are the deadliest individual crashes in the window.

KilledYearCountyRoadWhat happened
72019AlachuaI-75Another vehicle
62016Palm BeachI-95Concrete Traffic Barrier
62020OkaloosaSR-85Another vehicle
62022Palm BeachUS-441Another vehicle
62023HillsboroughMU-JIM LEFLER CIRRailway Vehicle
52016HillsboroughSR-574Another vehicle
52017FlaglerUS-1Another vehicle
52017AlachuaI-75Parked Motor Vehicle
52018DuvalUS-90Another vehicle
52018Miami-DadeUS-41Other Fixed Object
52018St. LucieCR-712Another vehicle
52021Palm BeachW CAMINO REALUtility pole
52021OrangeCLARCONA RDAnother vehicle
52022Miami-DadeSR-826Another vehicle
52022HillsboroughSR-39Another vehicle

How to read this

Two datasets, two windows. Fatal crashes: NHTSA FARS census, 2016–2023 (24,757 crashes, 26,605 deaths, 100% geocoded). Serious-injury crashes: FDOT's public All-Crashes layer, restricted to 2014–2018 — the years whose death tolls match the official state count.

Chronic danger vs. one bad day. Intersection rankings use recurring severe-crash frequency (10+ crashes), not one-off death spikes. The 2012 Paynes Prairie I-75 smoke pileup killed 11 in a morning — a disaster, not a dangerous intersection.

Per capita changes everything. Miami-Dade leads raw counts, but its rate sits near the U.S. average. Florida's deadliest counties per resident are rural — Putnam, Suwannee, Levy — at ~2.6× the statewide 14.7 per 100k.

Guardrail: aggregates, roads, and public infrastructure only — never individual crash-victim records.

Common questions

What is the deadliest road in Florida?

In our analysis of NHTSA FARS fatal-crash data, US 19 in Pasco County stands out as one of Florida's deadliest corridors. This is a data-journalism finding about where fatal crashes cluster across 2016-2023, based on aggregate public records -- it does not describe any single crash or assign blame.

When are fatal crashes most likely in Florida?

The data shows a clear Saturday-night danger window, with fatal crashes concentrating in late-night and weekend hours. These are aggregate patterns from public crash records across multiple years, not a prediction about any specific trip.

Did traffic deaths rise during the pandemic in Florida?

Yes. Florida fatalities spiked roughly 17% during the pandemic period, consistent with a national trend. This is a correlation observed in the public FARS data, not a claim about cause -- many factors, including changes in driving behavior and traffic volume, moved at the same time.

How many killed occupants were unbelted?

Where belt use was recorded in the data, about 57% of killed vehicle occupants were unbelted, and roughly 50% of killed motorcyclists were without a helmet. These are aggregate figures from public records where the relevant field was reported; they are not medical or legal advice.

More investigations

Related guides

Source: NHTSA FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) · FDOT All-Crashes (State Safety Office) · U.S. Census Bureau — Population Estimates

This is data journalism and general information, not legal advice. Figures describe aggregate public-record patterns, not any individual case or outcome.