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A ten-minute drive down State Road 9 in South Florida is all it takes for motorists to develop a deep sense of unease, a feeling that any twitch of a blinker-averse driver might spell death. A new Washington Post study has validated those fears, placing FL-9 on its list of the deadliest U.S. roads for pedestrians.
With Florida’s highways and byways having recently teamed up to earn the dubious honor of most dangerous for bicyclists in the country, it was only a matter of time before individual Sunshine State stretches claimed unenviable titles. Only three roads in the nation ranked more deadly than the ribbon of asphalt known as Unity Boulevard (AKA 27th Avenue) that connects the infamous Golden Glades Interchange in North Miami Beach with Coconut Grove. A stretch of that road ranked in the top 10 most deadly in the U.S., notching 11 fatalities from 2021 and 2023.
Looking further back, the Post study found that deaths caused by vehicles striking pedestrians rose 70 percent between 2010 and 2023, from 4,302 in 2010 to 7,314 in 2023. Pedestrian fatalities in other developed nations, meanwhile declined almost 30 percent in the same period, according to the study.
And while total deaths continue to climb each year, the study, which was compiled with crash data, census records, and thousands of pages of police reports, illuminated another worrisome trend: Fewer pedestrians are surviving long enough to make it to the hospital. Pedestrian deaths in hospitals outnumbered deaths at the scene in each year of the study from 2010 to 2020, when deaths at the scene took the lead. More than half of U.S. victims in 2023 died instantly, leading investigators to conclude higher speeds and larger vehicles are creating more violent wrecks.
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Many U.S. roads on the list shared several similarities, including multiple lanes and being concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods with old commercial strip malls.
“Wide roads and fast-moving vehicles — especially when combined with signs of poverty, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, and a lack of pedestrian-focused roadway improvements — produced a pattern of death-by-vehicle that is uniquely American,” the authors wrote.
