Florida’s Interstate-4 is Deadliest Highway in Nation

Interstate-4 in Florida ranks as the deadliest highway in the U.S. for the second time in a row according to a recent five-year analysis by Teletrac Navman, a mobile asset and fleet management software provider. 

Specifically, the over 132-mile stretch of I-4 that connects Tampa to Daytona Beach is the only roadway in the report averaging more than one fatality per mile. From 2016 to 2019, a staggering 150 people were killed there in collisions, including 11 in Orlando alone. 

Teletrac Navman’s last report was in 2015 when that same stretch of highway claimed the lives of 165 people. 

The new report identifies the top 25 deadliest roads. It found that Interstates-45, 192 and 17 in Texas, Florida and Arizona, respectively, each held their ranks as the second, third and fourth deadliest highways since 2015. 

US-92 running from St. Petersburg to Daytona Beach, Fla. took fifth place in the new report. 

There is some good news in the report as well. The analysis of fatality rates over four years found a drop in the total death count. Moreover, 10 highways fell from the top 25 most dangerous.  

For example, I-84 from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts plunged 51 places —earning kudos for the biggest statistical improvement in the study. Additionally, I-78 from Pennsylvania to New York City, which had been in the top 10, dropped 30 places. That’s the second-biggest statistical improvement in the study. 

Finally, two of the longest highways in the nation, US-1 and I-40, dropped from the list altogether.

Some 36,096 people died in collisions on U.S. roadways in 2019 alone, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Distracted driving which claimed 3,142 lives in 2019 and speeding, which was responsible for more than 9,378 lost lives in 2018, remain two of our greatest roadway problems.