Q&A of the Day – How Dangerous Are Florida’s Roads?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
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Today’s Entry: Brian, I have a topic for the Q&A. We so often hear about traffic issues, road construction and accidents. What about road safety? Perhaps it’s just my perception, however drivers appear to be more reckless than ever and as traffic worsens, behavior seems to have as well. Is this my perception or has it become less safe?
Bottom Line: Your note stood out to me because my wife just recently told me that one of her friends was commenting on how drivers were worse in South Florida than they are in LA. We can start with what we know about Florida’s most dangerous roads. Three of the 17 most dangerous in the country are in Florida, including the deadliest. Earlier this year a study revealed this...
- I-95 from Palm Beach County through Miami-Dade is the 17th most deadly road
- Central Florida’s I-4 is currently 3rd
- US 1 throughout South Florida through the Keys is currently the deadliest
With two of the deadliest roads in the country, including the deadliest, located in South Florida, it’s likely safe to say that it’s not just your perception that Florida’s full of reckless drivers. There’s evidence suggesting drivers in South Florida may well be the most dangerous in the country. This is also consistent with Florida, and South Florida most specifically, having the highest auto insurance premiums in the country.
As for the bigger picture, which considers all of what happens on our roads, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is the official tracker with annual reports detailing what happens on our roads. Believe it or not, the news over the past year has been slightly better. Nationally traffic fatalities have declined by 0.3% over the past year to a total of 42,795. In Florida we performed better than that.
- Florida experienced 3,652 traffic fatalities in 2022, a decline of 2.3% from the prior year.
Overall, Florida accounted for the third most traffic fatalities last year, which given that we’re the 3rd most populous state stands to reason. But that doesn’t tell the entire story. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tracks safety based on the number of miles driven. This accounts for population and driving habit disparities between states. The figure used is how many traffic fatalities occur per 100 million miles driven. The national average is 1.35 people per 100 million miles driven die. The safest state to drive in is Rhode Island which experiences only 0.69 fatalities. As for Florida, we are above the national average, which given what we’ve already discussed you might expect, but perhaps not quite as much as you might think.
- Florida ranks 12th with 1.53 traffic fatalities per 100 million miles driven
This means that it is 13% risker to drive on Florida’s roads compared to the average other road anywhere in the USA. With that said there are obviously several other states across the country which are generally less safe led by South Carolina which is the most dangerous state to drive in. When you dig further into the data a big part of what appears to be in play is speed and geography. Floridians tend to spend far more time commuting on highways as part of our day-to-day than residents in other states and that appears to be mostly responsible for increased risk on Florida’s roads.
Here are the odds of a crash between automobiles resulting in serious injuries or death based on speed:
- >50 mph: 1%
- 50-70 mph: 69%
- 70 mph+: 90%+
Florida ranks 5th for the amount of daily highway traveling per mile traveled nationally. Only residents of California, Maryland, Hawaii and Colorado spend more time on highways than we do. And likewise, Florida ranks 5th for the most congested interstates as well. Behaviorally that tends to lend itself to aggressive drivers becoming frustrated and driving more aggressively and also drivers who become distracted. On that note Florida ranks 14th for the adjusted rate of distracted driving deaths. So no, it’s not your imagination or a misperception about unsafe drivers in Florida. Although at least there’s been a bit of improvement mostly recently. We’ll take the good news where we can get it.