Indiana Crash Hot Spots: The Most Dangerous Roads and Intersections

Where Indiana Traffic Deaths Happen

Indiana lost 872 people on its roads in 2024, according to Indiana Crash Facts 2024, the state’s crash fact book built from Indiana State Police ARIES records. That’s down from 938 in 2023 and 990 in 2022. Most of those deaths didn’t happen in the big cities: 58% were in suburban, exurban and rural areas. For 2025, NHTSA’s early estimate points lower again.

Marion County, home to Indianapolis, had 131 traffic deaths in 2024, according to its IU Public Policy Institute county profile. INDOT’s updated Strategic Highway Safety Plan sorts its work into action plans that include roadway departure, intersections, speeding, impaired driving, work zones and vulnerable road users like people on foot.

Indiana’s High-Risk Highways and Corridors

These are the roads that come up again and again in Indiana crash coverage, with figures from INDOT, police and local safety plans wherever they’ve been published.

1. Interstate 465: The Indianapolis Beltway

I-465 runs about 53 miles around Indianapolis, and nearly everything else meets it: I-65, I-69, I-70 and I-74. Short ramps, heavy truck traffic and drivers cutting across three lanes for an exit keep it busy with crashes. Fog and the first ice of the season bring pileups.

The northeast side has been under construction for years. INDOT’s Clear Path 465 project is widening I-465 between the White River and Fall Creek and rebuilding the interchange with I-69, with completion expected in late 2026. A few miles south at exit 42, Pendleton Pike (U.S. 36) heads into Lawrence, and the City of Lawrence says that five-mile stretch from I-465 to 65th Street has seen more crashes than the state average, which is why INDOT is putting in raised medians along sections of the center turn lane.

2. I-65 and I-70: Downtown Indianapolis

I-65 and I-70 share the inner loop around downtown, and the North Split, where they come together on the near northeast side, was a daily bottleneck for decades. Ramps at Delaware and Pennsylvania streets forced drivers to weave across each other’s paths. In 2022, then-INDOT Commissioner Mike Smith said the interchange produced over 300 crashes every year.

The North Split was rebuilt between 2021 and 2023. In May 2026, INDOT said an early review found crashes down 29% in four hot-spot segments, including the two ramp weaves.

3. Washington Street: Across Indianapolis

Washington Street is the city’s old National Road, and on the east side it’s lined with bus stops, driveways, strip centers and long gaps between signals. People cross mid-block to reach the bus, and a lot of the worst crashes here involve someone on foot. The Emerson Avenue crossing is one of them.

An IndyGo safety study of the corridor from High School Road to Hugo Street, using ARIES data, counted 15 fatal crashes that killed 18 people from 2015 to 2017, and 8 of those fatal crashes involved someone walking or biking. In 2024 IndyGo won a $22 million federal grant for new sidewalks, crossings, signals and bus lanes on about 4.7 miles of East Washington Street between Highland and Edmondson avenues.

4. U.S. 30 and Coliseum Boulevard: Warsaw to Fort Wayne

U.S. 30 is one of northern Indiana’s main east-west truck routes, running from the Illinois line through Merrillville, Valparaiso, Plymouth, Warsaw and Columbia City to Fort Wayne and on to Ohio. Much of it is a four-lane divided highway with at-grade crossroads, so a car pulling out from a county road meets semis doing 60. INDOT’s ProPEL US 30 study covers about 58 miles, from Beech Road in Marshall County to I-69 west of Fort Wayne and from I-469 to the Ohio line, and that study area had 2,717 crashes from 2017 to 2021, including 21 fatal crashes that killed 24 people.

U.S. 30 now runs around Fort Wayne on I-69 and I-469, so the road that meets Lima Road is Coliseum Boulevard (State Road 930), the old U.S. 30 route past Glenbrook Square. Fort Wayne police name Coliseum Boulevard at Coldwater and Lima roads, along with Clinton Street, I-69 and downtown intersections, among the parts of the city more prone to crashes.

5. U.S. 41: Evansville’s North-South Highway

U.S. 41 comes into Evansville over the Twin Bridges from Henderson, Kentucky, and runs north through the city as a busy arterial, with interchanges at the Lloyd Expressway and Diamond Avenue. Stores and gas stations line much of it, and cross traffic at the signals is where serious wrecks happen.

INDOT rated the U.S. 41 and Washington Avenue intersection a high crash location, with 15 fatal or incapacitating crashes from 2016 to 2018. In March 2025 it switched to a Boulevard Left design, where left turns move to signalized U-turns up the road. On the nearby Lloyd Expressway, INDOT’s Lloyd4U work is adding displaced left turns at Burkhardt Road and Red Bank Road.

6. I-69: Evansville to Indianapolis

For decades, State Road 37 between Bloomington and Indianapolis was a four-lane highway with traffic lights and crossroads, including Smith Valley Road in Johnson County. The Smith Valley Road interchange opened in November 2023, when the last of 14 signals on the corridor came out at Fairview Road. The I-465 interchange followed in August 2024, completing I-69 from Evansville to Indianapolis.

The risks today are the ones on any long rural interstate: high speeds, deer and fog in the river bottoms. Around Bloomington it fills with Indiana University traffic on move-in weekends and game days.

7. Borman Expressway and Indianapolis Boulevard: Lake County

The Borman Expressway (I-80/94) carries Chicago-bound commuters and a steady stream of semis through Hammond and Gary, and lake-effect snow can drop visibility to nothing in minutes. Lake County had 41 traffic deaths in 2024, according to its IU county profile.

U.S. 41 leaves the Borman as Indianapolis Boulevard and heads south through Highland, Schererville and St. John. Highland’s Safe Streets for All plan counted 225 crashes at U.S. 41 and 45th Street from 2019 to 2023, and 595 on U.S. 41 between Ridge Road and Hart Road.

More High-Crash Locations Across Indiana

Beyond the highways, local studies have counted crashes at specific intersections in Indianapolis, South Bend, Evansville and Northwest Indiana. In Indianapolis, the city’s Vision Zero program reports that 5% of its streets account for 43% of fatal and incapacitating-injury crashes. These are the locations with published figures.

Several of these places are already being reworked. Evansville’s U.S. 41 and Washington Avenue intersection switched to its new U-turn design in March 2025, INDOT is adding raised medians along Pendleton Pike in Lawrence, and IndyGo’s East Washington Street grant pays for new crossings where pedestrians have been dying.

How to Stay Safe on Indiana’s Most Dangerous Roads

You can’t avoid these roads, but you can drive them knowing where the trouble is.

For Drivers:

1. Pick your lane early on I-465: Short ramps and weaving cause a lot of the beltway’s wrecks. Get into your exit lane a mile ahead instead of cutting across at the last second.
2. Watch your speed: Indiana Crash Facts counted 198 fatal speed-related crashes in 2024. Slow down more in rain, fog and the first snow.
3. Be patient at U.S. 30 crossroads: If you’re pulling onto U.S. 30 from a county road, wait for a real gap. Trucks at highway speed close distance faster than you think.
4. Give semis room: On the Borman and I-65, stay out of truck blind spots and don’t cut in close.
5. Slow down in work zones: Clear Path 465 in Indianapolis and Lloyd4U in Evansville both mean lane shifts and sudden stops.
6. Never drive impaired: 92 people died in Indiana crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver in 2024. Get a ride.

For Pedestrians:

1. Cross at signals: On wide streets like Washington Street, 38th Street or Coliseum Boulevard, crossing mid-block gives drivers almost no time to stop.
2. Be visible at night: Wear something light or reflective, and carry a light on unlit stretches.
3. Make eye contact: Wait until a car has fully stopped before you step out, and watch for right turns on red.

For Cyclists:

1. Use trails and protected lanes: Where they exist, like the Indianapolis Cultural Trail or Monon Trail, use them instead of busy arterials.
2. Light up: Run front and rear lights, even at dusk.
3. Watch turning drivers: Drivers turning across your path at busy intersections often don’t see cyclists. Never assume they’ll yield.

General Tips:

1. Check the weather before you go: Lake-effect snow in Lake and Porter counties and fog on I-69 catch drivers every year.
2. Check traffic before long drives: INDOT’s TrafficWise or a navigation app will show crashes, closures and construction as they happen.
3. Buckle up every seat: It’s the simplest thing you can do to survive a crash, on a city street or the interstate.

What to Do If You’re Injured in an Indiana Car Accident

A crash on I-465, U.S. 30 or Washington Street can turn your week upside down. What you do in the first hours and days matters for your health and your finances.

1. Call 911. Even if no one looks badly hurt, get police to the scene so there’s an official crash report. Ask for an ambulance if anyone is injured.
2. Get checked out. Concussions and internal injuries don’t always show up right away. Go to the ER or urgent care, then follow up with your own doctor.
3. Document the scene if it’s safe. Photograph the vehicles, damage, plates, skid marks, signs and road conditions. Get witnesses’ names and numbers, and trade insurance information without admitting fault.
4. Be careful with adjusters. The other driver’s insurer may call quickly. You can politely decline a recorded statement until you have your crash report and know your options.
5. Keep everything. Medical records, bills, repair estimates, missed work, and every letter or email from an insurer.

Your report is written by the officer who responded, whether that was a state trooper, a city officer or a county deputy, and Indiana Toll Road crashes go to the State Police’s Toll Road district. The Indiana State Police keep the central repository of crash reports for the whole state, and our Indiana crash report guide explains how to get a copy.

Can’t tell which agency took the report, or would rather skip the paperwork? We can get a copy of your report for you at no cost.

Indiana Crash Hot Spot Questions

More Indiana Crash Guides

County accident news: Marion County · Allen County · Lake County · St. Joseph County · Vanderburgh County · Hamilton County · Howard County · Vigo County

Nearby states: Illinois crash hot spots · Ohio crash hot spots · Kentucky crash hot spots · Michigan crash hot spots

For the latest, crashes from around the state are posted in Indiana accident news and our recent accident alerts.