May 2025 | Brittney J. Miller
On average, nine people died and 44 people were seriously injured on Florida roadways every day between 2019 and 2023.
The good news? State data for 2024 generally shows a continued downward trend in roadway fatalities and serious injuries, says Pei-Sung Lin, program director of Intelligent Transportation Systems, Traffic Operations and Safety within the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida.
The Stats
Of last year’s 697,000-plus crashes, around 14,000 resulted in serious injury and more than 3,000 resulted in fatalities, according to the Florida Traffic Safety Dashboard as of press time. (The interactive, web-based Signal 4 Analytics system may include preliminary or unverified crash reports.)
Lane departures (unintentional straying from lanes) and intersection crashes accounted for the highest numbers of serious injuries, totaling about 4,700 and 5,300 respectively. That’s in keeping with previous trends. Between 2015 and 2019, intersection crashes resulted in just over 35,400 serious injuries — the most among crash types. Lane departures — which can be attributed to speeding or distracted, drowsy or impaired drivers — ranked second with around 30,500 serious injuries.
Crashes involving older drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists, motorcyclists and motor scooter drivers, and distracted drivers followed in serious injury counts in 2024 — again, their numbers mostly reflecting past trends. Between 2015 and 2019, drivers who were 65 or older and distracted drivers respectively accounted for about 22,300 and 16,000 serious injuries. Crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists, motorcyclists and motor scooter riders, and teen drivers each hovered around 12,000 serious injuries in that time frame.
In cases of roadway fatalities, lane departures have long led the state. In 2024, the incident type accounted for 1,286 fatalities, creeping down from a peak of 1,667 deaths in 2021. Between 2015 and 2019, it comprised 42% of all deaths on roadways.
Accidents at intersections were the second deadliest crash type in 2024, leading to about 950 fatalities — around 20% belonging to the 65-plus age group. People 55-plus comprised about 35% of the 880-some fatalities involving pedestrians and bicyclists. Impaired driving led to 733 deaths — the lowest count in a decade, as of press time numbers — with most crashes taking place on Saturdays and Sundays between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Safety Measures, Tips
Continuous lighting on highways has been shown to reduce fatal crashes caused by lane departures by 69%. High-visibility crosswalks curtail pedestrian injuries by up to 40%, and raised crossings cut odds by 45%.
Above all, Lin advises Florida drivers to trust in themselves and practice defensive driving.