What Are the Most Dangerous Roads in Mississippi?

When you live in a state for a long time you come to know local dangers well. In fact, they tend to just blend into the background of everyday life, and you forget they exist. Those visiting the state are much less likely to be aware of these risks unless they encounter one.

When you’re talking about dangerous highways, learning the hard way means being involved in a vehicle accident. Mississippi has some stretches of roadway that command a higher level of respect when driving on them because of the havoc they’ve wreaked on travelers and commuters.

Dangerous highways in Mississippi

For nearly 20 years, Mississippi has led the nation in traffic fatalities with a rate of 22.9 deaths for every 100,000 residents. Many of these accidents result in catastrophic injuries or leave families of victims wondering how they’ll be able to pick up the pieces and move on.

The highways these deaths mostly occur on include:

• I-69. In early July two people died on this highway when a driver apparently swerved to miss shredded tire debris in the roadway, lost control spinning out and crashing with a semi.
• I-59. This highway has a record of 47 deaths per mile. Crashes result from many causes such as the one in early August when a man driving an eighteen wheeler is believed to have had a medical emergency that caused him to hit another vehicle then careen across the road only stopping when he struck a bank of trees. Multiple incidents occurred on this same highway in late August when numerous vehicles crashed over the span of a little more than a mile.
• I-110. In October 2019, a crash occurred involving a tour bus, semi truck and a passenger vehicle that miraculously left no injuries. Meanwhile a pedestrian who walked into traffic was killed and the driver of the vehicle was injured in Biloxi in early March.
• I-220. In mid August, a box truck rear ended a passenger vehicle setting off a major vehicle fire and causing minor injuries.
• I-10. Statistics show that this interstate has a rate of 0.7 deaths per mile.
• I-20. The death toll on this highway stands at 57 per mile.

Additional high-traffic roadways with a high probability of injury in our state are:

• I-14
• I-269
• I-55
• I-22

Why is Mississippi already the most dangerous state for drivers?

In addition to driving on already dangerous roads and highways, other factors play into making Mississippi a deadly place to travel around. According to Mississippi Today, state residents are more likely than residents of almost every other state to take deadly risks on the road by:

• Failing to wear a seatbelt
• Drinking and driving
• Speeding
• Texting while driving

What makes certain highways or intersections dangerous?

Serious auto accidents can happen anywhere across Mississippi, but the state has numerous trouble spots that have been cataloged for various perils that drivers have encountered.

There are several common road conditions that contribute to collisions such as:

• Construction and work zones. These can include narrowed lanes and moving equipment and workers, requiring a high level of focus on the road.
• Poor road maintenance. Potholes or debris on the roadway can cause a vehicle to pop a tire and lose control or collide with objects that cause drivers to panic and hit another vehicle or veer off the road.
• Traffic jams. Traffic tends to cause road rage or erratic driving as a result of frustration from being late to a destination. This in turn, elevates the potential for serious accidents.
• Multi-direction intersections. Safely maneuvering multi-direction intersections is a problem everywhere. Traffic signals are not always present at these crossroads and drivers do not always understand signage or traffic procedures in these situations. This often ends in more than one vehicle entering the intersection and colliding.
• Malfunctioning traffic signals. Drivers rarely remember the rule for flashing lights or complete signal outages at intersections. These situations are treated like a three-way or four-way stop sign, which also means drivers must be attentive to determine which vehicles were there first as that dictates the order in which cars proceed through the intersection.

If you or a loved one becomes injured on one of our highways or backroads, the experienced Mississippi car accident attorneys from Merkel & Cocke, P.A. will help you navigate through the difficult process of personal injury settlement. Handling your injury claim is our top priority so that you can focus on your priority of recovering. To schedule your free consultation with a member of our team, call 662-302-2979 or complete our contact form today. We operate offices in Jackson, Clarksdale, and Oxford in addition to serving clients in the City of Tupelo.