New York Crash Hot Spots: The Most Dangerous Roads and Intersections

Where New York Traffic Deaths Happen

NHTSA’s early estimate puts New York’s 2025 traffic deaths at 1,011, down from 1,101 in 2024. Pedestrians made up about a quarter of the 2024 deaths. New York City had its safest year on record in 2025, with 205 deaths, so roughly four in five New York traffic deaths now happen outside the five boroughs.

The State Comptroller found deaths were greatest on Long Island in 2022, with 164 in Suffolk County and 81 in Nassau. The same report found New York City had the lowest death rate of any region that year, 2.9 per 100,000 people, against just under 6 statewide.

New York’s High-Risk Intersections and Corridors

Some New York crossings and highways come up in crash coverage year after year. Here’s what makes each one tricky, with published figures wherever they exist.

1. Tillary Street and Flatbush Avenue: Downtown Brooklyn

This is where traffic coming off the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges lands on regular city streets. Drivers are still in highway mode, the lanes split and merge at odd angles, and people on foot and on bikes are trying to get to the bridge paths at the same time.

In its 2022 Flatbush Avenue presentation, NYC DOT named Tillary Street as one of 10 Vision Zero priority intersections on Flatbush, and called the whole avenue, from Tillary to Avenue V, a priority corridor. DOT counted 164 people killed or seriously injured on that stretch from 2016 to 2020, including 7 pedestrians killed.

2. Second Avenue and East 59th Street: Queensboro Bridge, Manhattan

Second Avenue at 59th Street sits at the mouth of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, so bridge traffic, taxis, M15 buses and cyclists all meet in a few short blocks. Drivers turning across the bike lane and the crosswalks are the classic conflict here.

The trouble runs a few blocks deep. NYC DOT’s Vision Zero priority intersections list, which flags the intersections with the most crashes that killed or severely injured pedestrians in each borough, includes Second Avenue at both East 57th and East 58th Streets, along with Lexington Avenue at East 59th.

3. 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue: Midtown Manhattan

The Port Authority Bus Terminal fills the west side of Eighth Avenue below 42nd Street, and Times Square is a block east. Buses, cabs and delivery trucks squeeze through crowds that never really thin out.

Eighth Avenue from Hudson Street to Columbus Circle is a Vision Zero priority corridor. NYC DOT counted 20.9 pedestrians killed or severely injured per mile there from 2012 to 2016, and says that fell 38% in 2017 to 2021. Nearby, an analysis of city DOT crash data by the advocacy groups Transportation Alternatives, Families for Safe Streets and Open Plans, reported by amNY in December 2025, counted 9 people killed or seriously injured at Avenue of the Americas and West 42nd Street since the start of 2022. That was the highest count amNY reported, shared with three other intersections.

4. Taconic State Parkway: Westchester to Columbia County

The Taconic was built as a scenic parkway, and it still drives like one: narrow lanes, sharp curves, short ramps and little shoulder, and farther north, cross roads that meet the parkway at grade. Deer are a real hazard at dawn and dusk, and much of it is dark at night.

In May 2025, a southbound van crossed the median in New Castle and hit a northbound car head-on, and four people died, State Police said. Assemblyman Matt Slater says NYSDOT agreed to review 10 years of crash data on the stretch from the Saw Mill River Parkway to Miller Hill Road. In the meantime, NYSDOT is adding shoulder rumble strips, inlaid pavement markings and better signs on exit ramps to stop wrong-way driving.

5. Linden Boulevard and Pennsylvania Avenue: East New York, Brooklyn

This crossing is in East New York, Brooklyn. Linden Boulevard is a wide, fast road here, with long walks between signals, and farther east the city says people have to cross ten lanes of traffic to reach a bus stop.

Linden Boulevard from Sapphire Street to Flatbush Avenue, which takes in Pennsylvania Avenue, is a Vision Zero priority corridor. NYC DOT counted 7.4 pedestrians killed or severely injured per mile there from 2012 to 2016, with 6 pedestrians killed. East of Pennsylvania Avenue, from Fountain Avenue to Conduit Avenue, the city counted 443 injuries, 15 severe injuries and 1 death from 2021 to 2025, and plans a redesign with bus boarding islands and new signals starting in late 2026.

6. Interstate 490: Rochester, From I-390 to the Can of Worms

I-490 is Rochester’s main east-west expressway. On the west side it meets I-390, and on the east side, the I-490 and I-590 junction between the city and Brighton is still called the Can of Worms, decades after it was rebuilt.

A News10NBC analysis of NYSDOT crash data for Monroe County ranked the I-390 and I-490 interchange as the most crash-prone area, with 942 crashes and 162 injuries from 2019 to 2024. The Can of Worms, out to the Penfield Road exit, came second with 714 crashes, and I-490 downtown, from Brown Street to South Clinton Avenue, was third with 614 crashes and 2 deaths.

7. Interstate 81 and I-690: Syracuse

I-81 runs through the heart of Syracuse on a 1.4-mile elevated viaduct near downtown, and meets I-690 at an elevated interchange right in downtown. NYSDOT says portions of I-81 here have had high accident rates, and the highway carries about 100,000 vehicles a day.

That’s changing. NYSDOT’s I-81 Viaduct Project, estimated at $2.25 billion, will take down the viaduct. In September 2026, federal officials approved renaming I-481 as the new I-81 and the old route through the city as Business Loop 81, so expect work zones and shifting lanes for years. Our Syracuse car accident guide covers the city’s high injury streets and how to get a Syracuse police report.

8. Bailey Avenue: Buffalo’s East Side

Bailey Avenue runs north and south through Buffalo’s East Side, a wide street where traffic moves fast and plenty of people walk, bike and wait for buses. It has a long record of pedestrians and cyclists being hit.

A Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) study counted more than 2,500 collisions on Bailey Avenue over five years, as Sens. Gillibrand and Schumer cited in March 2024. The city’s Bailey Avenue Complete Streets project covers the stretch from Kensington Avenue to Winspear Avenue.

More High-Crash Locations Across New York

City plans, NYSDOT studies and news analyses have put numbers on specific spots in New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and Buffalo. These are the ones with published figures.

A few of these are getting work. Syracuse’s Vision Zero plan counts 42 people killed and 608 seriously injured on city streets from 2019 to 2023, and it maps the High Injury Network where half of the fatal and serious-injury crashes happened. In Albany, NYSDOT’s Reimagining I-787 study found the heaviest crash concentration on I-787 at the I-90 interchange ramps, as the state weighs how to rebuild the waterfront highway. And in Brooklyn, the Linden Boulevard redesign is set to start construction in late 2026 and finish in 2027.

How to Stay Safe on New York’s Most Dangerous Roads

You can’t avoid these roads, but you can know where the trouble is.

For Drivers:

1. Slow down coming off bridges and expressways: At Tillary Street and the Queensboro Bridge, you go from highway speed to a crowded city street in a few hundred feet. Brake early and expect people in the crosswalk.
2. Look twice before turning right: On Second Avenue and Eighth Avenue, cyclists and pedestrians are often right beside you. Check the bike lane and the crosswalk before you turn.
3. Pick your lane early at big interchanges: The I-390 and I-490 interchange and the Can of Worms in Rochester punish last-second lane changes. Know your exit before you get there.
4. Treat the Taconic like a country road: Keep to the limit, watch for deer at dawn and dusk, and never pass on a curve.
5. Slow down in work zones: The I-81 Viaduct Project in Syracuse means shifting lanes and stopped traffic for years. Merge early and watch for workers.

For Pedestrians:

1. Cross with the signal at marked crosswalks: On wide roads like Linden Boulevard and Bailey Avenue, crossing mid-block leaves drivers almost no time to react.
2. Make eye contact: Don’t assume a turning driver sees you, especially near Port Authority and the bridge approaches. Wait until the car stops.
3. Be visible after dark: Wear something light or reflective on unlit upstate roads.

For Cyclists:

1. Use protected lanes and greenways: Where they exist, like Second Avenue in Manhattan, use them. Where they don’t, ride predictably and stay visible.
2. Light up: Run front and rear lights at night and in winter’s early darkness, and use hand signals.
3. Watch for right hooks: Turning trucks and buses often don’t see cyclists. Never assume a driver will yield.

General Tips:

1. Know your route: If your commute includes I-490, I-81 or I-787, build in time for delays and drive defensively.
2. Respect lake-effect snow: Snow squalls around Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse can drop visibility to nothing in seconds. Slow down and leave a big gap.
3. Check traffic before you leave: 511NY or a navigation app will show crashes, closures and construction as they happen.

What to Do If You’re Injured in a New York Car Accident

A bad crash on the Taconic, I-490 or a Brooklyn boulevard can leave you hurt and unsure what to do first. What you do in the first hours and days matters, for your health and for your wallet.

1. Call 911. Even if nobody seems badly hurt, get police to the scene so there’s an official crash report. If anyone is seriously injured, ask for an ambulance.
2. Get checked out. Concussions and internal injuries don’t always show up right away, so go to the ER or urgent care and follow up with your own doctor.
3. Document the scene if you can. If it’s safe, photograph the vehicles, damage, plates, signs and road conditions. Get witnesses’ names and contact details, and swap insurance information with the other driver without admitting fault.
4. Be careful with adjusters. The other driver’s insurer may call soon after the crash. You can politely decline a recorded statement until you have your crash report and understand your options.
5. Keep everything. Medical records, bills, repair estimates, missed work, and every letter or email from an insurer. In New York, a driver in a crash that kills or injures anyone also has to file a DMV MV-104 report within 10 days.

Which agency has your report depends on where you crashed. The NYPD handles crashes inside New York City, the State Police cover the Thruway and the other roads troopers patrol, and city, town, village or county police handle everywhere else. Our New York crash report guide walks through getting a copy from each.

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

New York Crash Hot Spot Questions

More New York Crash Guides

City crash guides: Syracuse, NY

County accident news: Monroe County · Erie County · Onondaga County · Suffolk County · New York County (Manhattan) · Albany County · Niagara County · Kings County (Brooklyn)

Nearby states: Pennsylvania crash hot spots · New Jersey crash hot spots · Massachusetts crash hot spots · Connecticut crash hot spots

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