Heads up to Austinites commuting on the city's freeways: Austin's notorious I-35 was just deemed one of the deadliest roads in the country, and the second deadliest road in Texas. That's according to a new study based on the latest National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data.
The study, commissioned by Santa Ana, California-based company Future Bail Bonds, compared fatal crash data across 96,000 U.S. roads from 2019-2023. The top 150 "deadliest" roads were ranked by the total number of fatal crashes that occurred during the five-year period.
The No. 1 deadliest road in America is I-15 in San Bernardino County, California, the study found. The interstate, which runs from Southern California to Las Vegas, experienced the highest rate of deadly car crashes from 2019-2023 with 196 crashes.
I-35 had 87 fatal vehicle crashes during that time to rank as the 17th deadliest road in the U.S. and the second deadliest statewide. Considering that tens of thousands of people drive the road every day, a fatal crash is relatively unlikely, but the data underscores the need for drivers to remain aware of their surroundings at all times.
The highway's constant traffic congestion, numerous fatalities, and headache-inducing expansion projects also earned it a recently updated reputation as a "freeway without a future" by the activist group Congress for the New Urbanism.
I-35's notoriety as a dangerous highway extends further than Austin: The stretch of I-35 that runs through San Antonio ranked No. 130 on the list after 43 deadly wrecks occurred between 2019 and 2023.
The deadliest road in Texas is I-45 in Houston, the study found, which had 88 fatal vehicle wrecks in the five-year period. I-45 stretches from Dallas to Galveston, and it ranked one spot above Austin's portion of I-35 as the 16th deadliest U.S. road. A specific part of the highway, the I-45 North Freeway, earned its own spot on the list as the 124th deadliest U.S. road.
"From 2019 to 2023, motor vehicle crashes claimed 186,284 lives across 96,257 roads in the United States, underscoring the persistent danger on American roadways," the report said.
10 other Texas roads that were deemed the deadliest in America with the highest rates of fatal vehicle crashes from 2019-2023 include:
- No. 22 – I-10 in Harris County (76 crashes)
- No. 23 – I-30 in Dallas County (76 crashes)
- No. 27 – I-410 in Bexar County (73 crashes)
- No. 32 – I-10 in El Paso County (69 crashes)
- No. 63 – I-20 in Tarrant County (56 crashes)
- No. 66 – I-820 in Tarrant County (55 crashes)
- No. 114 – FM 1960 in Harris County (45 crashes)
- No. 115 – SR-12 in Dallas County (45 crashes)
- No. 131 – I-610 in Harris County (43 crashes)
- No. 132 – I-635 in Dallas County (43 crashes)
- No. 141 – I-10 in Jefferson County (42 crashes)