Traffic safety nonprofit Propel ATL made headlines last month when it released a report showing vehicle crashes had killed more people in metro Atlanta’s five core counties than homicides in 2024. 

A new analysis helps shed light on the biggest culprits for traffic fatalities locally. 

The nationwide study by iSelect, a car insurance comparison service, shows that state highways—and not interstates—have generally accounted for the largest portion of fatal U.S. road crashes in recent years. 

But Atlanta appears to have bucked that trend. 

The tangle of Interstate 75 and 85's convergence in Midtown, near Atlantic Station. Shutterstock

iSelect pulled data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a federal database, to examine nearly 130,000 deadly crashes in the U.S. The study relies on publicly released data from 2019 to 2023, as information for more recent years isn’t yet available, a rep tells Urbanize Atlanta. 

The study broke down crashes by road type across all 50 states and Washington D.C. Analysts found that, on a national basis, 42 percent of fatal crashes occur on state highways, compared with 23 percent on U.S. highways, 18 percent on interstates, and 17 percent on local streets.

The data show 7,744 fatal crashes occurred cross Georgia in the five-year timespan in question. 

The breakdown of where those crashes happened around the Peach State, per iSelect: State highways (59 percent); U.S. highways (11 percent); interstates (21 percent); and local streets (8 percent). 

We asked iSelect for a closer look that would help illustrate where fatal crashes took place in Atlanta across the five years in question. But first, a couple of notes on state roads in the top 10, as seen in the chart below: 

Portions of State Route 139 include Lee Street and Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard in Atlanta. 

Sections of State Road 166 include Langford Parkway on the southside. 

And portions of State Road 42 include Moreland Avenue and Briarcliff Road in the city. 

These are the top 20 most dangerous roadways in Atlanta over five years ending in 2023, per iSelect’s findings: 

Atlanta-specific fatal crash data provided to Urbanize ATL. Courtesy of iSelect

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