Crash statistics and trends in Indianapolis

Indianapolis logged 85 traffic deaths in 2025, down from more than 120 during the pandemic-era peak in 2021, according to the city's first Vision Zero annual report.¹ That's real progress, but the numbers still tell a hard story: pedestrians and cyclists made up more than 30% of those deaths, with 24 pedestrians and nine cyclists killed on Indianapolis streets last year alone.¹

If you were just in a wreck here, you're not an outlier. Marion County crash reports flow through the state's Automated Reporting Information Exchange System (ARIES), the same database Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) officers use to file crash reports across the city.¹ Here's what the data shows about where and how people get hurt on Indianapolis roads, and what's being done about it.

The numbers behind the headlines

In 2024, Marion County recorded 122 fatal crashes and 706 serious injury crashes, a combined 828 incidents.² Since 2018, that adds up to 899 traffic deaths and 4,126 serious injury crashes across the county.²

Passenger vehicles account for about 83% of crash incidents. Pedestrians tell a different story: they make up only 14% of crashes but 30% of deaths, and cyclists are 3% of incidents but 4% of fatalities.² Walking or biking in Indianapolis carries a disproportionate share of the risk.

Intersections are the other pattern that shows up again and again. They account for 45% of fatalities and 64% of combined serious and fatal crashes across the region.²

Where the crashes cluster

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization's 2026 Intersection Safety Study flagged 25 high-crash locations across the metro area, plus five high-priority spots for pedestrians and cyclists chosen through a near-miss review instead of waiting for another death.³ That study covers Indianapolis, Lawrence, Fishers, Noblesville, Greenwood, McCordsville, Plainfield, and parts of Hamilton and Johnson counties.³ Earlier rounds found 19 high-crash locations in 2023 and 24 in 2019; a 2016 study ranked the top 50 most dangerous intersections in the region.³

Some locations show up in the record more than once. East 38th Street between Michigan Road and Shadeland Avenue has seen repeated pedestrian deaths, including a hit-and-run that killed a 42-year-old man near Keystone Avenue.⁴ On the north side, the crossing where 86th Street meets the Monon Trail is where cyclist Frank Radaker Jr. was killed in October 2021, and Lafayette Road at 82nd Street is where a pedestrian was struck the following spring, an incident that pushed his widow to start tracking crashes citywide.⁵ In April 2024 alone, 77 pedestrians were hit by vehicles in Indianapolis, the highest 30-day total since local tracking began two years earlier.⁵

On the southeast side, the four-way stop at Southport Road and Five Points Road in Franklin Township logged 64 crashes over a four-year study period.⁶ The city is converting it to a roundabout: a $2.9 million project with $1.9 million coming from IMPO funds. Milestone Contractors won the construction bid at $1,775,000 in March 2026, and work starts that fall.⁶⁷

What the city is doing about it

The Indianapolis City-County Council created the Vision Zero Task Force by ordinance in 2024, setting a goal of eliminating all fatal and serious injury crashes on city streets by 2035.⁸ Its action plan lays out 25 strategies and 75 specific action items, ranging from short-term "quick build" fixes like temporary lane separators and bollards, deployable within weeks, up to full intersection redesigns that require City-County Council approval.⁹⁸

A Fatal Crash Review Team, standing since 2022, examines every pedestrian death in the city to look for patterns IMPD and the Department of Public Works can act on.⁵⁸ Public Works currently has 19 tactical urbanism projects underway, plus pedestrian bridges programmed over 46th Street and 86th Street and a new one recently opened over 96th Street connecting to the Nickel Plate Trail.⁸

Money is moving too. The IMPO distributed $56 million toward regional safety projects in 2024, funding new roundabouts in Carmel, Fishers, Greenwood, Beech Grove, and Plainfield, plus an extension of the Eagle Creek Greenway.² A separate road and bridge funding round paid for a $2.2 million rehab of the 38th Street bridge over Little Eagle Creek, part of a roughly $30 million package for the city.¹⁰ Regionally, the IMPO has also set its own longer-range target: a 35% reduction in fatal and serious crashes by 2040, measured against a 2020 baseline.²

The state picture and the law

Indianapolis's trend mirrors, and slightly beats, the state's. Indiana recorded 928 traffic deaths in 2023, down from 979 the year before, which had been a ten-year high; the 2023 fatality rate worked out to 13.5 deaths per 100,000 people statewide.¹¹

One law shapes a lot of what shows up in these crash reports. Indiana's hands-free statute, Indiana Code 9-21-8-59, has barred holding or using a phone while driving since July 1, 2020.¹² Drivers 21 and older can use hands-free or voice-activated technology; drivers under 21 can't use a phone behind the wheel at all, hands-free or not. A violation is a Class C infraction, and phone use turns up constantly as a contributing factor once officers can establish it.¹²

If you were hurt in a crash

None of these numbers tell you what to do the day after you're hit at 38th and Keystone or rear-ended on I-465. Get medical care first, even if you feel fine at the scene. Save the report number from IMPD or Indiana State Police. Photograph the intersection itself, not just your car, since the pattern at that specific location (or the lack of one) can matter later.

If insurance gets complicated or the crash left you with real injuries, an attorney who handles Marion County cases regularly will know the difference between a routine claim and one that needs more digging. You can find one through the legal directory.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. WTHR, "Indianapolis releases first Vision Zero report as traffic deaths decline from pandemic peak," https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/indianapolis-releases-first-vision-zero-report-traffic-deaths-decline-from-pandemic-peak-cyclists-pedestrians/531-e6689ee1-72ef-4d2a-805d-b8d2e0e384f3

2. Indiana Insight, "Safer streets, but rising injuries," https://www.indianainsight.com/2025/09/12/safer-streets-but-rising-injuries/

3. Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization, "Intersection Safety Studies," https://indympo.gov/plans-initiatives/safety-studies/

4. WTHR, "42-year-old pedestrian killed in hit-and-run crash along 38th Street near Keystone Avenue," https://www.wthr.com/video/news/crime/531-8cd52c9f-bb5f-4175-b24e-1d26d9ef5243

5. Mirror Indy, "Vision Zero: Indy pedestrian safety advocates' plan to eliminate traffic deaths," https://mirrorindy.org/vision-zero-indianapolis-pedestrian-bicycle-safety-traffic-deaths/

6. Fox59, "Indy's southeast side is getting another roundabout," https://fox59.com/indiana-news/indys-southeast-side-is-getting-another-roundabout/

7. IndianaBids, "Bid Results on Southport Rd And Five Points Rd Roundabout," https://www.indianabids.com/bid-result/southport_rd_and_five_points_rd_roundabout_-14683840

8. WFYI, "How Indianapolis' new road safety team intends to eliminate traffic deaths by 2035," https://www.wfyi.org/wfyi-news/2026-03-04/how-indianapolis-new-road-safety-team-intends-to-eliminate-traffic-deaths-by-2035

9. WTHR, "Task force unveils Vision Zero action plan for Indianapolis," https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/task-force-unveils-indianapolis-vision-zero-action-plan-cyclists-pedestrians-safety-fatalities/531-cdbe3c8f-c72c-4b61-b971-0b067f18cb9a

10. WISH-TV, "Here's where Indy will spend $30 million on road, bridge projects," https://www.wishtv.com/news/politics/heres-where-indy-will-spend-30-million-on-road-bridge-projects/

11. Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, "Indiana Crash Facts 2023," https://www.in.gov/cji/research/files/2023-Crash-Facts-with-Officer-Report.pdf

12. Indiana Code 9-21-8-59, Justia, https://law.justia.com/codes/indiana/title-9/article-21/chapter-8/section-9-21-8-59/