These are the top five most dangerous highway stretches in the U.S., based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (NHTSA-FARS).
Related: Scariest tunnels for truckers
US Highway 93, Arizona
This highway covers a stretch of 200 miles in Arizona that many drivers use to travel between Las Vegas and Phoenix. More specifically, it runs from Wickenburg, Arizona, to the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge, also known as the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, near the Arizona-Nevada border.
From 2010 to 2016, 90 people died in 70 fatal crashes on this road. Most of these crashes happened in Mohave County in the far western part of Arizona, which includes the city of Kingman.
State Route 9, Oklahoma
State Route 9 spans east to west through the middle of Oklahoma, between the Arkansas state border and the Texas panhandle. At 348 miles long, it’s the second-longest state highway in Oklahoma, behind State Route 3, which is 615 miles long. Between 2010 and 2016, 60 people were killed in 50 fatal crashes on this highway. The majority occurred in Cleveland County, which includes the city of Norman.
US Highway 160, Colorado
This 490-mile-long highway segment starts near Colorado’s border with New Mexico and ends near the Colorado-Kansas border. The majority of the 80 fatal crashes on this road fro 2010 to 2016 took place on the portion running through La Plata County, which includes the city of Durango. A total of 99 people died in those crashes.
Many locals in Colorado, as well as truckers, also know that Wolf Creek Pass on U.S. Highway 160 is dangerous. It’s a high mountain pass, located about 80 miles east of Durango, where many vehicles have crashed. The steep roads and many switchbacks make driving dicey during several months of the year due to snow and ice.
Related: Scariest tunnels for truckers
Interstate 5, California
California has many highways that run north to south and this one goes on for almost 800 miles, stretching from Oregon to the San Ysidro crossing at the Mexican border. There were 680 fatal crashes on Interstate 5 in California between 2010 and 2016, in which 768 people were killed.
This interstate connects drivers through Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, Santa Ana, Stockton and Redding, intersecting with Interstate 10 near Los Angeles and Interstate 8 near San Diego. The most dangerous portion of the highway is in Los Angeles County, where traffic volume is highest.
Interstate 10, Texas
Another highway that spans the length of a state, I-10 in Texas stretches about 877 miles from Anthony, near the New Mexico state line, to Orange, near the Louisiana border. It runs through El Paso, Houston and San Antonio. With 585 fatal crashes and a total of 676 deaths from 2010 to 2016, the section with the highest fatalities was Harris County, which includes the Houston metropolitan area.
Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Nick Austin.
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