Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville Car Accident Guide and Data Hub

The Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville television market covers a wide stretch of central and southeastern North Carolina, anchored by Wake, Durham, and Cumberland counties. If you were just in a crash somewhere in this market, this page gathers what state and local governments actually record about our roads: how many crashes happen, where the worst ones cluster, and what North Carolina law expects of you afterward.

What the crash numbers look like here

North Carolina recorded 284,546 reportable crashes in 2024 and 1,732 traffic deaths, a 2.7% increase over 2023, according to the NC Division of Motor Vehicles' 2024 Traffic Crash Facts.¹ Speeding was tied to 21.4% of those deaths, and pedestrian deaths rose 12% to 281.¹

The three anchor cities carry much of that load. In 2024, Raleigh logged 16,799 reportable crashes with 38 deaths and 6,226 people injured.¹ Durham recorded 8,355 crashes, 28 deaths, and 3,021 injuries.¹ Fayetteville had 4,471 crashes, 30 deaths, and 1,967 injuries.¹

County fatality counts line up with that. Wake County saw 94 traffic deaths in 2024, second only to Mecklenburg among North Carolina's 100 counties. Cumberland County had 58, the fourth-highest total in the state, and Durham County had 34.¹

Raleigh and Wake County, where Capital Boulevard leads the list

Raleigh's safety data keeps pointing at the same roads, and Capital Boulevard is at the front. The intersection of Capital Boulevard and Calvary Drive ranks first in North Carolina for pedestrian and bicycle crashes.² Across all modes, the city has flagged Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at Rose Lane, Capital Boulevard at Huntleigh Drive, and U.S. 70 at Tryon Road as its three worst intersections. For people walking, biking, or riding scooters, the problem spots are Six Forks Road at Millbrook Road, South Wilmington Street at East Davie Street, and New Bern Avenue at Sunnybrook Road.²

Freeways matter too. A WRAL review of NCDOT data found that I-40 at Aviation Parkway had the most crashes of any Wake County intersection, and that county crashes have climbed roughly 45% over the past decade.³

Raleigh adopted its Vision Zero Comprehensive Safety Action Plan in April 2026, aiming to cut fatal and serious-injury crashes in half by 2040.⁴ The plan runs more than 500 pages and counted about 1,100 pedestrian and cyclist crashes between 2019 and 2023, which were more than four times as likely to end in serious injury or death as other crashes.⁵ Signal and crosswalk work at Capital Boulevard and Calvary Drive is set to start in fall 2026.²

Durham: 10% of the streets, 74% of the harm

Durham has run a Vision Zero program since September 2017.⁶ Its sharpest local statistic is this: about 10% of the city's streets, roughly 130 centerline miles, account for 74% of all fatal and serious-injury crashes, based on crash records from 2016 through 2023.⁶ The city calls that its High Injury Network, and its first Vision Zero Action Plan, covering 2025 through 2029, concentrates safety work there.⁶ On an average day, Durham sees about 22 crashes, and a pedestrian is struck roughly every three days.⁷ Priority corridors include Holloway Street and Fayetteville Street, while the county's heaviest crash volumes sit on I-40 and I-85.⁶ In a typical year, about 23 people die on Durham roads.⁶

Fayetteville has a pedestrian problem

Fayetteville's data stands out for one reason. Of the city's 30 traffic deaths in 2024, 14 were pedestrians, and Fayetteville recorded 81 pedestrian-involved crashes that year.¹ Nearly half of its road deaths were people on foot.

The city's Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan, produced with NCDOT, found that roughly 8% of Fayetteville's road miles account for about 76% of its fatal and serious-injury crashes, with 675 such crashes between 2019 and 2023.⁸ The corridors that surface again and again are Raeford Road, Bragg Boulevard, and the north-south routes serving Fort Bragg, among them Murchison Road and Yadkin Road.⁸ Raeford Road has a documented record of pedestrian deaths; Fayetteville police have reported fatal pedestrian crashes along it, including one near Greenleaf Drive.⁹ Cumberland County also carries I-95, the interstate that moves much of the market's long-haul truck traffic and some of its worst wrecks.

Who responds, and where the data comes from

Crashes here are worked by a mix of agencies. Inside city limits, that means the Raleigh, Durham, and Fayetteville police departments. On roads outside them, it is the Wake, Durham, and Cumberland county sheriff's offices and the NC State Highway Patrol. NCDOT owns most of the numbered highways and publishes the crash statistics above.¹ Longer-term road planning runs through the region's metropolitan planning organizations: CAMPO around Raleigh, the DCHC MPO in Durham and Chapel Hill, and FAMPO in Fayetteville.

North Carolina law requires the driver in a reportable crash to notify law enforcement immediately, by the quickest means available.¹⁰ A reportable crash is one involving death, injury, or at least $1,000 in property damage.¹ The investigating officer writes the report, and you can order a copy afterward from the NCDMV using form TR-67A, by mail or in person; the Raleigh pickup location is on New Bern Avenue.¹¹

What North Carolina law means after a crash

Two deadlines matter most. You generally have three years to file a personal-injury lawsuit under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-52, and two years for a wrongful-death claim under § 1-53.¹²¹³ Miss the deadline and the claim is almost always gone.

The rule that catches drivers off guard is fault. North Carolina is one of the few states that still follows pure contributory negligence. If you are found even slightly responsible for the crash, you can be barred from recovering anything. The state Supreme Court stated it directly in Sorrells v. M.Y.B. Hospitality Ventures: a plaintiff's contributory negligence bars recovery from a defendant who commits an act of ordinary negligence.¹⁴ That is why the details of who did what, and what the crash report records, carry so much weight here. If you are weighing a claim, you can compare local personal-injury attorneys through the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.

One habit helps in a contributory-negligence state: write down what you remember while it is fresh, photograph the scene and both vehicles, and get the crash report number before you leave. Small records can decide the whole case.

This page is general information about North Carolina crash data and law, not legal advice.

Sources

1. North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles, 2024 Traffic Crash Facts. https://connect.ncdot.gov/business/DMV/CrashFactsDocuments/2024%20Crash%20Facts.pdf

2. CBS17 (WNCN), "City of Raleigh aims to reduce deadly and serious crashes, address dangerous intersections." https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/wake-county-news/city-of-raleigh-aims-to-reduce-deadly-and-serious-crashes-address-dangerous-intersections/

3. WRAL Investigates, "These intersections have the most crashes in Wake County." https://www.wral.com/news/investigates/intersections-most-crashes-wake-county-improvements-2025/

4. City of Raleigh, Vision Zero. https://raleighnc.gov/transportation/services/vision-zero

5. ABC11 (WTVD), "Ways to curb serious crashes, eliminate traffic deaths unveiled in Raleigh Safety Action Plan." https://abc11.com/post/crash-prevention-nc-ways-curb-serious-crashes-eliminate-traffic-deaths-unveiled-raleigh-safety-action-plan/18980222/

6. City of Durham, Vision Zero. https://www.durhamnc.gov/2995/Vision-Zero

7. NC Vision Zero, Durham community page. https://ncvisionzero.org/about-us/communities/durham/

8. City of Fayetteville, Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan. https://www.fayettevillenc.gov/files/sharedassets/main/v/1/public-services/documents/pedestrian/fayetteville-pedestrian-plan_final-report-merged.pdf

9. Fayetteville Police Department, media release: Pedestrian Fatality, Raeford Road near Greenleaf Drive. https://www.fayettevillenc.gov/City-Departments/Police-Department/FPD-Media-Releases/Pedestrian-Fatality-Raeford-Rd-near-Greenleaf-Dr

10. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-166.1. https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_20/GS_20-166.1.html

11. North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles, Crash Reports. https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/offices-services/records-reports/Pages/crash-reports.aspx

12. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-52. https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_1/GS_1-52.html

13. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-53. https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_1/GS_1-53.html

14. Sorrells v. M.Y.B. Hospitality Ventures, 332 N.C. 645, 423 S.E.2d 72 (1992), via CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1420656/sorrells-v-myb-hospitality-ventures/