If you were just in a crash somewhere between the Big I and the Santa Fe Plaza, the figures around you aren't abstract. New Mexico recorded 45,042 traffic crashes on public roads in 2024, and 444 people died, the third-highest toll in a decade.1 A crash happened somewhere in the state about every 12 minutes, and one happened in Bernalillo County roughly every 30 minutes.1 This page gathers the 2024 crash data for the Albuquerque and Santa Fe metro and the roads where wrecks keep happening.
The 2024 numbers for Bernalillo County and Albuquerque
Bernalillo County is where most of New Mexico's crashes happen. It logged 17,733 crashes in 2024, about 39 percent of the statewide total and up from 15,554 the year before.1 Set against how much people actually drive, its crash rate was 316 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, close to double the statewide rate of 158.1
The death toll tracked the volume. 122 people were killed in Bernalillo County crashes in 2024, more than a quarter of all traffic deaths in the state and up from 114 in 2023.1 The city of Albuquerque by itself accounted for 15,529 of those crashes and 99 deaths, the highest count of any city in New Mexico.1 For its size the city runs hot, at 27.7 crashes per 1,000 residents against a statewide figure of 21.1.1 The county also recorded 618 alcohol-involved crashes, 28 percent of every drunk-driving crash in the state.1
The metro doesn't stop at the county line. Rio Rancho, just northwest in Sandoval County, added 1,494 crashes and five deaths, and Sandoval County as a whole saw 2,327 crashes and 20 deaths.1
Santa Fe's roads
Santa Fe County still ranks third statewide for total crashes, with 3,314 in 2024 and 18 deaths.1 The city of Santa Fe had 2,411 crashes, and its alcohol-involved crash rate of 13.5 per 10,000 residents ran higher than Albuquerque's 8.9.1
Most of that traffic funnels onto a couple of roads. Cerrillos Road is the city's main commercial route and its busiest crash corridor. Santa Fe police reported pedestrian strikes running above the historical average through 2024, and traffic counts on Cerrillos climbed 3 to 7 percent between 2022 and 2023.2 St. Francis Drive, the US 84/285 route past the Plaza, is a known speeding stretch.2 Police Lt. Thomas Grundler told the Santa Fe New Mexican that officers "are lucky if they get 10 to 20 minutes here and there to run traffic in between the crashes."2
The I-25 corridor that links Santa Fe to Albuquerque climbs La Bajada hill, where NMDOT finished a roadway reinforcement project in 2024.1
The corridors and interchanges where wrecks cluster
East Central Avenue is the road Albuquerque officials call the deadliest pedestrian corridor in the country. At least 40 people have been killed since 2018 along the roughly three-mile stretch through the International District, between San Mateo and Eubank, where people cross six lanes of traffic.3 The city dropped the speed limit to 35 mph, re-striped Central from six travel lanes to four, and put in about 200 solar-powered pedestrian lights between Louisiana and Eubank plus new HAWK crossing signals.3 NMDOT is separately installing a pedestrian-activated warning system on Louisiana Boulevard.4
For interstate drivers the pressure point is the Big I, the I-25 and I-40 interchange at the center of the city and the busiest in the state. NMDOT's Big I Operations Study (Control No. A302371) ties morning and afternoon ramp congestion to a higher frequency of crashes on the ramps and their approaches, and the agency is weighing added lanes and redesigned merge points.5 I-40 is also the metro's main east-west freight route, and heavy-truck crashes hit a decade high of 3,388 statewide in 2024.1
Why the pedestrian risk runs higher here
New Mexico has carried the highest per-capita pedestrian death rate in the country, and the Albuquerque area ranks as the second most dangerous large metro for pedestrian deaths.46 Statewide, 102 pedestrians were killed in 2024.1 Bernalillo County accounted for 48 of them, and pedestrians made up 39 percent of all traffic deaths there. In Santa Fe County the share was nearly the same.1
A lot of this happens in the dark. Crashes in dark, unlighted conditions were 11 percent of all crashes statewide but 35 percent of the fatal ones.1 Alcohol was involved in 40 percent of deaths, and in 45 percent of the pedestrian deaths specifically.1 Driver inattention was the most common contributing factor across all crashes, and drivers aged 15 to 24 had the highest crash rate of any age group.1 The Mid-Region Council of Governments flagged the metro as the nation's second-worst for pedestrian fatalities in its regional safety plan, using crash data from 2017 to 2021.6
Albuquerque signed on to Vision Zero in a May 2019 executive order, targeting zero traffic deaths by 2040; NMDOT's statewide Target Zero aims for the same by 2050.74 The Central Avenue work is the early test. City figures showed pedestrian and cyclist crashes down 55 percent in 2025, with five deaths on East Central by that point in the year against 11 at the same point in 2024.3
What to do after a crash here
Call 911 and report any injury crash. Who shows up depends on where you are. The Albuquerque Police Department handles city streets, the New Mexico State Police work the interstates and the Big I, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office covers unincorporated areas, and the Santa Fe Police Department covers that city. Get the officer's name and the crash report number before you leave the scene.
Photograph the vehicles, the intersection, skid marks, and any signs or signals. See a doctor even if you feel fine; suspected serious injuries were about 1 percent of people in crashes but account for most of the lasting harm.1 The New Mexico crash report is the record insurers and courts work from, so make sure your account of events is accurate.1 If the other driver had no insurance or took off, know that 19 percent of New Mexico crashes in 2024 were hit-and-run.1 When you need help with fault or an insurer, you can find an attorney through the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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New Mexico Department of Transportation / University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies, "New Mexico Traffic Crash Annual Report 2024" (published Feb. 5, 2026). https://gps.unm.edu/tru/reports/annual-crash-reports/annual-report-2024.pdf
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Santa Fe New Mexican, "Concerns raised over increase in Cerrillos Road crashes, pedestrian injuries" (May 7, 2024). https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/concerns-raised-over-increase-in-cerrillos-road-crashes-pedestrian-injuries/article_b4f3e080-0bbd-11ef-9c0c-8f77c5108698.html
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Albuquerque Journal, "Albuquerque's deadliest corridor gets a slew of safety upgrades for pedestrians" (Sept. 5, 2025). https://www.abqjournal.com/news/albuquerques-deadliest-corridor-gets-a-slew-of-safety-upgrades-for-pedestrians/371784
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New Mexico Department of Transportation, "New Mexico sees decline in pedestrian fatalities in 2024" (July 21, 2025). https://www.dot.nm.gov/blog/2025/07/21/new-mexico-sees-decline-in-pedestrian-fatalities-in-2024/
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New Mexico Department of Transportation, "Big I Operations Study (CN A302371)." https://www.dot.nm.gov/projects/big-i-operations-study/
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Mid-Region Council of Governments, "Safety and Crashes." https://www.mrcog-nm.gov/255/Safety-and-Crashes
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City of Albuquerque, "Vision Zero." https://www.cabq.gov/vision-zero