Crash Statistics and Trends in the Cleveland-Akron-Canton Media Market

The Cleveland-Akron-Canton television market stretches across 17 counties in northeast Ohio, but three of them carry most of the traffic and most of the crashes: Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Summit (Akron), and Stark (Canton). Together those three counties logged 45,911 crashes in 2025, according to the Ohio Traffic Safety Office's county-level data.¹²³ Statewide, Ohio recorded 264,954 crashes in 2025,⁴ and preliminary Ohio State Highway Patrol figures put traffic deaths at 1,125 for the year, the fourth straight annual decline. Governor Mike DeWine still called that number "far too high."⁵ Behind those totals are specific roads, ramps, and intersections that keep showing up in the data year after year, in Cleveland, in Akron, and in Canton alike.

Where Cleveland's crashes cluster

Cuyahoga County recorded 75 traffic deaths and 6,651 injury crashes in 2025, against 17,430 property-damage-only crashes.¹ Interstate 90 accounted for 1,278 of the county's crashes in 2025 alone, its highest single-route total, followed by I-480 with 958 and I-71 with 582.¹ The city's own numbers point the same direction: Cleveland traffic deaths climbed from 43 in 2022 to 59 in 2023 to 75 in 2024, even with the city's Vision Zero program in place since 2022.⁶ A 2024 review of pedestrian and bicycle crashes counted 550 people struck by vehicles in Cleveland in 2023, nine of them fatally, including a 75-year-old hit in a crosswalk on West 14th Street and a 15-year-old struck on East 105th Street by a driver with a suspended license.⁷

That pattern is why St. Clair Avenue, between East 101st and East 156th streets, is now getting rebuilt. Fourteen people were killed and 79 seriously injured along St. Clair between East 55th and East 156th streets from 2020 through 2024, and the corridor includes what the city has identified as its first- and second-deadliest intersections for traffic crashes.⁸ A $2.1 million federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant and a $5 million ODOT Target Speed grant are funding a road diet there, with a center turn lane, raised crosswalks, and a protected bike lane.⁸

The interstates tell their own story. A stepped-up enforcement corridor on I-90 between East 55th and East 260th streets cut fatal crashes 38 percent and serious-injury crashes 32 percent over two years.⁹ That enforcement has since shifted to a new 14-mile safety corridor on I-480, running from the Lorain County line to State Route 176, where troopers have logged nearly 800 crashes and 9 deaths over the same two-year window, with speed and unbelted occupants the most common factors.⁹ Meanwhile, I-90's $173 million rehabilitation project is adding its own risk: work-zone crashes in Rocky River, Lakewood, and Cleveland rose from 6 in September 2024 to 10 in September 2025, concentrated near West 140th Street and West 117th Street.¹⁰ A 2022 analysis by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency named Mentor Avenue in Mentor, West 117th Street, and West 25th Street among the region's most crash-prone corridors, based on total crashes and the share involving death or serious injury.¹¹

Akron and Summit County's high-crash corridors

Summit County logged 31 traffic deaths and 2,855 injury crashes in 2025, with Interstate 77 its busiest crash route at 941 crashes, ahead of State Route 8 (781) and State Route 18 (576).² The Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study's newest crash report, covering Portage and Summit counties plus northeastern Wayne County, tallied 46,576 crashes from 2022 through 2024. The trend there is improving: fatalities fell 26.1 percent and fatal crashes fell 27.9 percent from 2023 to 2024, and the region's 2024 crash count, 14,968, dropped below 15,000 for the first time in recent memory.¹²

AMATS ranks intersections and roadway segments by crash volume and severity combined, and its list has a new leader. Rhodes Avenue and West Thornton Street in Akron jumped from 8th place two years ago to 1st, with 26 crashes over the three-year span.¹² Tied for second, with 26 crashes of its own, is Riverview Road and Ira Road in Cuyahoga Falls, which has ranked second in all three of the study's reporting periods and includes at least one fatality.¹² By roadway segment, the sharpest concentration is a 0.39-mile stretch of State Route 14/44 in Ravenna Township, running nearly 18 crashes per mile per year, while a 2.55-mile piece of State Route 59 between State Route 261 and Brady Lake Road in Franklin and Ravenna townships saw 79 crashes, including two involving pedestrians, and sits on the region's federally recognized high-injury network.¹²

Individual 2025 crashes fill out the picture. A motorcyclist without a helmet died after losing control on State Route 8 near Sagamore Road in Northfield; he held a valid motorcycle endorsement but had never completed Ohio's rider training course.² On West Highland Road in Sagamore Hills Township, a driver lost control in wet weather, crossed the center line near South Boyden Road, and set off a three-vehicle chain reaction that sent two people to the hospital.²

Canton and Stark County's danger spots

Stark County recorded 31 traffic deaths and 1,873 injury crashes in 2025. U.S. Route 62 was the county's top crash route in 2025 with 498 crashes, just ahead of I-77 (492) and State Route 172 (489).³ The Stark County Area Transportation Study's latest ranking, built from 2022-2024 data, put a new intersection in first place: State Route 173 (State Street NE) at Paris Avenue NE in Marlboro Township, with 22 crashes and failure to yield cited in 60 percent of them. A roundabout is planned there for 2028 or 2029.¹³ Canton holds the next two spots on the list: Walnut Avenue at 15th Street NE, where county engineers suspect poor stop-sign visibility and have recommended flashing lights and tree trimming, and Dressler Road at Everhard Road, a six-lane signalized intersection that logged 20 crashes in 2024 alone before lane-widening work got underway.¹³

One of the county's fatal 2025 crashes happened on Beech Street NE near Oakhill Avenue NE, where a driver went off the road, struck a ditch, two mailboxes, and a culvert, then rolled her SUV; she wasn't wearing a seat belt and was ejected.³

What the crashes have in common

The same few factors show up in every county's data. Statewide, nearly a quarter of Ohio's 2025 fatal crashes involved a vehicle leaving the roadway, and 62 percent of people killed in Ohio crashes between 2021 and 2025 weren't buckled in.⁵ Failure to yield, running red lights or stop signs, and speeding round out the list in Cuyahoga, Summit, and Stark alike.¹²³ None of that makes any single crash less specific. It happened on a named road, at a named intersection, to a real person, and the paperwork (police reports, insurance calls, medical bills) starts arriving before the shock wears off.

If you're dealing with the aftermath of a crash on any of these roads, an attorney who already knows the corridor, the intersection, or the agency handling the case can save you time you don't have to spare. You can find one through our legal directory.

This article is for general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Ohio Traffic Safety Office, "2025 Cuyahoga County Traffic Crashes Fast Facts," https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/otso.ohio.gov/DataSheets/Cuyahoga.pdf

2. Ohio Traffic Safety Office, "2025 Summit County Traffic Crashes Fast Facts," https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/otso.ohio.gov/DataSheets/Summit.pdf

3. Ohio Traffic Safety Office, "2025 Stark County Traffic Crashes Fast Facts," https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/otso.ohio.gov/DataSheets/Stark.pdf

4. ThatCarHitMe.com, "Ohio (Statewide) Crash Report, 2025 Annual," https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/ohio/statewide/2025-annual-report

5. Richland Source, "Traffic fatalities decrease for a 4th consecutive year in Ohio," January 9, 2026, https://www.richlandsource.com/2026/01/09/traffic-fatalities-decrease-for-a-4th-consecutive-year-in-ohio/

6. Axios Cleveland, "Cleveland traffic deaths rise despite street safety push," May 21, 2025, https://www.axios.com/local/cleveland/2025/05/21/traffic-deaths-pedestrian-road-car-safety-report-bicycle

7. Cleveland Scene, "Annual Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Report Questions Effectiveness of Cleveland's Vision Zero Program," https://www.clevescene.com/news/annual-pedestrian-and-bicycle-crash-report-questions-effectiveness-of-clevelands-vision-zero-program-43750671/

8. City of Cleveland, "St. Clair Avenue (E. 101 to E. 156 Street)," https://www.clevelandohio.gov/transportation-mobility/st-clair

9. Cleveland 19 News, "New I-480 safety corridor brings increased patrols, zero-tolerance enforcement," July 31, 2026, https://www.cleveland19.com/2026/07/31/new-i-480-safety-corridor-brings-increased-patrols-zero-tolerance-enforcement/

10. News 5 Cleveland, "Crashes are up in the work zone on Interstate 90," https://www.news5cleveland.com/traffic/traffic-news/crashes-are-up-in-the-work-zone-on-interstate-90

11. News 5 Cleveland, "Agency identifies Northeast Ohio's 10 most dangerous traffic corridors but finds driver actions cause most crashes," https://www.news5cleveland.com/traffic/traffic-news/agency-identifies-northeast-ohios-10-most-dangerous-traffic-corridors-but-finds-driver-actions-cause-most-crashes

12. Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study, "2022-2024 Annual Crash Report" (published March 2026), https://www.amatsplanning.org/sites/default/files/docs/reports/DRAFT%202022-2024%20Annual%20Crash%20Report.pdf

13. News 5 Cleveland, "Stark County's most dangerous intersections ranked," https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/stark-countys-most-dangerous-intersections-ranked