Which Tennessee highway has the most traffic deaths?

Traffic deaths continue to be one of the highest causes of death for many age groups. According to the Tennessee Department of Transportation, nearly 40,000 people are killed annually in traffic accidents nationwide.

“The State of Tennessee and TDOT specifically take these numbers seriously and are constantly working to find ways to make our roads safer for all users,” said TDOT Community Relations Officer, Rebekah Hammonds in a statement to the Tennessean.

Hammonds said TDOT closely monitors crashes and fatalities along Tennessee roadways, as the data provides the state with priceless information.

“We take great care to identify sections of roadways with higher incident rates and we monitor trends over time to track our progress and provide us with information on where to concentrate our future efforts,” she said.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety calculated a state-by-state comparison of the number of roadway fatalities per vehicle miles. The results come from data obtained in 2021, the last year for which data is available. The United States average in 2021 for deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled along all roadways was 1.37, with individual states ranging from 0.84 to 2.08. Tennessee’s average was 1.61.

Using the same measure, TDOT performed calculations along TN’s major interstates over the past 5 years. Here’s how Tennessee highways rank in terms of highway deaths and other Tennessee data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Annual deaths along Tennessee’s major interstates

TDOT calculated the deaths along Tennessee’s major interstates over the past five years.

The results found rates less than half of what the national average (1.37) is for all roadways and there are only slight differences in safety between the different routes.

Interstate 40 - 0.61 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled per year (2019-2023)

Interstate 24 - 0.60 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled per year (2019-2023)

Interstate 65 - 0.53 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled per year (2019-2023)

Interstate 75 - 0.56 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled per year (2019-2023)

Fatal crash totals in Tennessee in 2021

Fatal crashes: 1,229

Deaths: 1,327

Deaths per 100,000 people (out of a population of 6,968,351): 19

Deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled:

1.61

ADRIANE JAECKLE / THE TENNESSEAN This section of Interstate 40/Interstate 24 west of Fesslers Lane, in Nashville, here Aug. 21, 2001, was the busiest section of highway in Tennessee the previous year, according to a report by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Interstates in all four of Tennessee’s urban areas routinely carry more than 100,000 vehicles each day, TDOT said.