Study finds Jacksonville has the fifth-most dangerous intersections in America

Jacksonville drivers keep making wrong choices at the right of way.

A new study by Kuzyk Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers looking at accident data over a decade found the First Coast metropolis placed fifth in the U.S. among 100 cities analyzed for crashes at crossroads.

Analysts from the law firm looked at crash data from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Census Bureau to compile its list. They analyzed intersection wrecks between 2014 to 2023 to order the list by the number of wrecks per 100,000 people.

Jacksonville recorded 414 total accidents at intersections during that time frame, for a per capita figure of 2.4 crashes per 100,000 people. That accounts for an average of 41.4 wrecks annually.

Jacksonville was outpaced by Albuquerque, New Mexico, which topped the list with 4.1 accidents per 100,000 people. Tucson, Arizona, was at No. 2, followed by Memphis, Tennessee, at No. 3 and Colorado Springs, Colorado, at No. 4.

“Jacksonville produces more raw crashes than three of the four cities ranked above it nationally, trailing only Memphis by 14 collisions across the full decade,” the study found.

The study also said Jacksonville’s high rank is due to the city’s lack of addressing dangerous intersections with improvements.

“Its 2.40 rate is not a statistical quirk; it is what a decade of deferred road safety investment looks like.”

But the comparisons to other Florida cities really set Jacksonville apart.

“No other city comes close,” the study concluded. “Jacksonville’s per-capita rate is more than five times higher than Orlando’s (0.44 crashes per 100,000) and nearly four times higher than Miami’s (0.46 wrecks per 100,000).”

Miami was ranked No. 72 on the list, with Orlando at No. 76.

The closest Florida city to Jacksonville in terms of per capita crashes was Lakeland, which placed No. 26. Lakeland had 0.91 crashes per 100,000 people.

North Port, which placed No. 100, had a per capita figure of 0.14 accidents per 100,000. North Port saw only 13 total crashes over the decade.

A total of nine Florida cities made the Top 100 list. Other Florida cities on the list included Tampa at No. 54, Cape Coral at No. 58, Deltona at No. 83 and Palm Bay at No. 84.