Miami and Fort Lauderdale sit at the center of one of the busiest media markets in the country, and the crash numbers behind that traffic are not abstract. Miami-Dade and Broward counties, the core of the market, stretch from the Everglades to the Atlantic and carry some of the densest traffic in Florida across corridors like I-95, the Palmetto Expressway, and US-1. The figures below come from the state's traffic safety agency, the region's metropolitan planning organizations, and the Florida Department of Transportation, not estimates or averages borrowed from a statewide page.
The scale of the problem in Miami-Dade and Broward
Miami-Dade County logged 60,000 traffic crashes in 2024, the most recent full year with closed-out totals from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV). That's actually a drop of 6.3% from the 64,009 crashes recorded in 2023, and the 272 deaths were down 16.3% from 325 the year before.1 Next door, Broward County saw 38,338 crashes in 2024, down almost 5% from 2023's 40,304. The death count moved the opposite direction, though: 235 people killed, up 7.3% from 219 in 2023.1 Statewide, Florida recorded 381,423 crashes and 3,098 deaths in 2024. Miami-Dade and Broward together account for roughly a quarter of all crashes in Florida, in two counties that make up a small fraction of the state's land area.1
Pedestrians, cyclists, and riders take the worst of it
Break the numbers down by road user and the pattern sharpens. Miami-Dade recorded 1,876 pedestrian crashes in 2024, which killed 75 people, an improvement from 101 pedestrian deaths in 2023. The county also logged 1,001 bicyclist crashes (20 deaths) and 1,398 motorcycle crashes (67 deaths).1 Broward's pedestrian numbers moved the wrong way: 1,219 pedestrian crashes and 69 deaths, up from 67 the year before. Bicyclist deaths in Broward jumped from 12 to 22, an 83% increase, out of 1,008 bicyclist crashes total.1
Zoom out to the metro level and the picture holds. Smart Growth America's Dangerous by Design project ranks Miami-Fort Lauderdale the 17th most dangerous metro area in the country for pedestrians, with a fatality rate of 3.4 per 100,000 residents averaged over 2020 to 2024. The metro recorded 1,062 pedestrian deaths across those five years, up from 945 in the previous five-year stretch, 2015 to 2019.2 That's a measured increase, not a rounding blip.
Where the crashes cluster
Crash risk isn't spread evenly across the map. Traffic analytics firm INRIX compiled South Florida collision reports from 2017 through 2021 for NBC6 South Florida and found that three of the region's six worst intersections sit on a single Broward corridor: Sheridan Street, where it crosses North Federal Highway, State Road 7, and North Park Road.3 All three fall in the Hollywood and Hallandale area, where Sheridan Street cuts across the region's other major north-south routes. On the Miami-Dade side, the remaining three worst intersections cluster along Bird Road and North Kendall Drive, at SW 87th Avenue, SW 97th Avenue, and SW 147th Avenue.3
Sheridan Street shows up again in a separate, current FDOT study: the agency's SR-9/I-95 PD&E study is evaluating interchange upgrades at Sheridan Street, Stirling Road, and Griffin Road along a 6.6-mile stretch of I-95 from the Miami-Dade/Broward county line to north of Griffin Road, with a stated goal of easing congestion and improving safety at those interchanges.4
The Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization's own numbers back up the idea that danger concentrates rather than spreads out evenly. In its federally funded safety analysis, the MPO found that 77% of crashes in the county happen on just 6% of its streets, and it counts 1,014 traffic deaths and 4,702 serious injuries countywide as the baseline problem its safety plan is meant to fix.5
What's being done about it
Miami-Dade's Vision Zero program, run through the county's Transportation Planning Organization, aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2040. With close to 300 fatalities a year on county roads, the program has mapped a High Injury Network of the corridors and intersections generating the highest concentration of severe crashes, and has completed 21 safety projects so far, with one more under construction. A $16.2 million Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant is now funding infrastructure work at 24 of the highest-priority locations, backed by more than $3 million in additional Highway Safety Improvement Program money for four separate design and construction projects. The county's 2024 Vision Zero Action Plan lays out the roadmap through 2028.6
Broward's parallel effort, the Broward Regional Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, runs on a $5 million SS4A grant plus $1.25 million in local matching funds, and is meant to turn the county's crash data into a prioritized list of capital projects.5
On the highway side, FDOT has several projects underway that double as safety fixes. The SR-826/Palmetto Expressway South PD&E study covers an 8-mile stretch from US-1/Dixie Highway to NW 25th Street, targeting the speed differentials and lane-weaving problems between interchanges on a corridor that's also one of Miami-Dade's most congested.7 The agency is separately running Phase 3 of its Wrong-Way Driving Initiative, a $4.9 million project installing detection cameras and LED warning signage at 15 off-ramps across Miami-Dade, including on the Palmetto Expressway, I-95, I-75, the Julia Tuttle Causeway, and the William Lehman Causeway. Work started in April 2025 and is expected to wrap in early 2027.8
If you've been in a crash here
None of these programs move fast enough to help someone dealing with a crash today. Miami-Dade and Broward's crash and injury counts aren't abstractions. They describe intersections plenty of local drivers already recognize by name, and years where the trend line moves the wrong way even as overall crash counts fall. If you're sorting out what comes next after a crash on Sheridan Street, Bird Road, the Palmetto, or anywhere else in the region, an attorney who works these roads regularly can help you understand your options. You can find one through the legal directory.
This article provides general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, "Florida Traffic Crash Facts Annual Report 2024," https://www.flhsmv.gov/pdf/crashreports/2024-Crash-Report.pdf
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Smart Growth America, "Dangerous by Design: 2026 State and Metro Rankings," https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/signature-reports/dangerous-by-design/rankings/
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NBC6 South Florida, "These are the most dangerous intersections in South Florida, according to experts," https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/these-are-most-dangerous-intersections-in-south-florida-according-to-experts/3268707/
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Florida Department of Transportation, "SR-9/I-95 PD&E Study," https://www.fdot.gov/projects/i95southbrowardpde/home
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Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization, "Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A)," https://www.browardmpo.org/major-initiatives/ss4a
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Miami-Dade County, "Vision Zero," https://www.miamidade.gov/global/initiatives/visionzero/home.page
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Florida Department of Transportation District Six, "SR 826/Palmetto Expressway South PD&E Study," https://www.fdotmiamidade.com/826expresssouth
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Florida Department of Transportation District Six, "Wrong-Way Driving Initiative - Phase 3," https://www.fdotmiamidade.com/project/220/446947-3-52-01