The three deadliest intersections in America are in New Jersey

TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey leads the nation in a lot of unpleasant things, including highest taxes, highest cost of living, and highest per capita COVID-19 death toll during the pandemic, but now the Garden State has taken the bronze, silver in gold medal when it comes to the most deadly intersections in America.

A report by the Fang Lawfirm, a personal injury practice based out of Colorado looked at roadway fatalities over a twenty-year period and found three New Jersey intersections were the most deadly in America.

“What is alarming is that two of the deadliest intersections are only four blocks apart: Spring Street (U.S. Routes 1&9) and East Jersey Street and Spring Street (U.S. Routes 1&9) and East Grand Street in Elizabeth, New Jersey,” the report said. “Both intersections are at the crossing of a local road (East Jersey and East Grand Streets) and a highway (US-1&9). There were nine fatal crashes at East Jersey Street and U.S. Routes 1&9. Four blocks away, at U.S. Routes 1&9 and East Grand Street, there were seven fatal crashes, the latest in 2018.”

The third most deadly intersection is in rural Ocean County along Route 70 in Toms River.

The Bureau of Safety Programs worked on improving pedestrian safety at these intersections through enhancements to signal layouts and operations. The following improvements were made:

• East Jersey Street: Pedestrian signals were added and minor signing and striping enhancements were installed. The minor street approaches received separate left-turn lane use designation and protected/permissive lead phasing.
• East Grand Street: Pedestrian indications were added for all four crossings and near left clamp-mounted vehicular signals were installed.

Despite these improvements, fatal crashes have continued to happen at these intersections. In fact, all of the combined 16 fatal crashes at these two intersections have happened after the 2005 Master Plan identified them as dangerous.

At the Toms River intersection, the Ocean County Engineering Department said while the road is a state road, they noted improvements were made in signaling at that intersection in an attempt to reduce fatal crashes.

New Jersey had more deadly intersections than any other state in the country, according to the report.

“In this study, we analyzed 2000-2019 fatal crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to filter crashes that occurred in an intersection, or were caused by traffic moving through an intersection (eg. The crash occurred outside the intersection itself but happened because of someone turning, or something of that nature),” The report said.

Top 10 deadliest intersections in America