Crash statistics and trends in Minneapolis-St. Paul

Minnesota traffic deaths dropped 20% in 2025, but Minneapolis and St. Paul still have specific corridors, from Hiawatha Avenue to the I-94/Highway 252 interchanges, that account for a disproportionate share of serious crashes.

ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial
Jul 11, 2026
6 min read

Minneapolis and St. Paul sit inside a state that just posted its best traffic safety year in nearly a decade, but that improvement doesn't erase what a crash actually costs someone in this metro: a totaled car, a claim adjuster, and a stretch of road, whether it's I-94 through the Snelling Avenue ramps or Hiawatha Avenue at 26th Street, that keeps showing up in the same safety reports year after year.

Statewide, 370 people died in traffic crashes in 2025, a preliminary count down 20% from the 475 deaths recorded in 2024 and the lowest total since 2019.12 The five-year run looks like this: 488 deaths in 2021, 444 in 2022, 402 in 2023, 475 in 2024, and 370 in 2025.2 The Department of Public Safety credits part of the drop to $12 million the Legislature approved in 2023 for roundabouts, rumble strips, and added enforcement on high-risk roads, and notes that adjusted for miles driven, Minnesota now ranks as the fourth safest state in the country for traffic deaths.2 Not every category moved the same direction: bicyclist deaths doubled statewide in 2025, from 7 to 14,2 even as pedestrian deaths eased from the 56 recorded in 2024, a 25% jump that alarmed state officials at the time, to 41 in 2025.34

The state doesn't publish those totals broken out by county, but Hennepin and Ramsey counties, home to Minneapolis and St. Paul, carry the state's heaviest crash volume on population and traffic density alone.5 The seven-county metro (Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington) accounts for 53.88% of Minnesota's alcohol-related crashes, though speeding shows up in a comparatively smaller 13.5% of metro crashes than it does on Greater Minnesota's faster rural roads.5

Where Minneapolis crashes cluster

The city's own numbers show the problem isn't spread evenly across the grid. Minneapolis Vision Zero data found that just 10% of city streets carried 64% of severe and fatal crashes between 2020 and 2024.6 The city averaged 160 people killed or seriously injured every year from 2017 through 2025, peaking at 206 in 2022 before declining for three straight years.6 Speed runs through nearly all of it: 80% of Minneapolis fatal crashes in 2024 involved speeding, and the physics aren't forgiving. A pedestrian hit at 20 mph faces roughly a 13% chance of serious injury; at 40 mph that risk climbs to 73%.6 Pedestrians make up 17% of trips in Minneapolis but 30% of serious injuries and deaths; cyclists are 3% of trips and 10% of the toll.6 The burden isn't spread evenly by race either: Black residents make up 19% of Minneapolis' population but 41% of its traffic deaths, and Native Americans, 2% of the population, account for 8% of pedestrian and bicycle deaths and 7% of vehicle deaths citywide.6

City project records single out the intersection of Hiawatha Avenue (Highway 55) and 26th Street East as having the highest count of deaths and serious injuries of any intersection in Minneapolis, which is why the city, MnDOT, and Metro Transit are now rebuilding it with shorter pedestrian crossings and expanded refuge islands.7 A few blocks south, MnDOT is putting $2.6 million into new refuge islands, realigned turn lanes, and a rebuilt signal system at Hiawatha's crossings with 45th and 46th Streets, with construction expected in 2026.8 The city has also rebuilt Lyndale Avenue North, Nicollet Avenue, 36th Street, Bloomington Avenue, and Plymouth Avenue North under its Vision Zero program over the past few years.9

North of downtown, Highway 252 through Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park has carried what MnDOT itself calls "high crash rates" for long enough that the agency is studying whether to rebuild it as a full freeway.10 Its own projections say a four-lane freeway version would cut crashes on the corridor by 49%, and six-lane versions by 31%.11 A community safety task force reviewing the project has argued MnDOT is grading itself on a curve, since even the reduced-crash options are being measured against a corridor residents already consider one of the most dangerous in the metro, and Brooklyn Center's mayor and council have said they oppose the freeway conversion as currently designed.12

St. Paul's high-crash corridors

St. Paul's crash analysis for its own Vision Zero plan found crashes clustering downtown and along the I-94 corridor, especially where entrance and exit ramps meet Snelling Avenue, Lexington Parkway, University Avenue, and Dale Street, based on crash data from 2018 through 2022.13 The city council adopted its Vision Zero Transportation Safety Action Plan in June 2023, setting a target of zero traffic deaths and serious injuries on Saint Paul streets by 2045, with an interim goal of cutting both in half along the way.14

Projects aimed at the worst stretches

Both cities are now working the problem at the corridor level. MnDOT and the Federal Highway Administration opened a Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement in early 2026 covering a 7.5-mile stretch of I-94 between the I-35W/Highway 55 interchange in Minneapolis and Marion Street in St. Paul, the first ground-up review of the freeway since it was built in the 1960s.15 The public comment period ran January 6 through March 9, 2026, with a virtual meeting on February 4 and an in-person meeting on February 19 at the Wilder Center in St. Paul, and the study is expected to run through 2029 with no construction funding attached yet.15 The Highway 252 study is on a similar clock, with a draft EIS expected in fall 2026 and construction, if it's approved at all, not starting until 2029.10

Getting help after a crash

If you're sorting out what happened after a crash on any of these corridors, whether it's a rear-end collision at one of the Highway 252 intersections or a pedestrian crash on a High Injury Street, an attorney familiar with Hennepin or Ramsey County crash reporting and insurance practices can help you understand your options. You can find one through the legal directory.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

  1. Minnesota Department of Public Safety, 2024 fatality count by month, https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ots/reports-statistics-and-data/fatal-crash-numbers/2024-fatality-count-month

  2. Minnesota Department of Public Safety, "New report: Traffic safety programs saving lives, driving down traffic deaths," https://dps.mn.gov/news/ots/new-report-traffic-safety-programs-saving-lives-driving-down-traffic-deaths

  3. Minnesota Department of Public Safety, 2025 fatality count by month, https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ots/reports-statistics-and-data/fatal-crash-numbers/2025-fatality-count-month

  4. KRWC 1360 AM, "25% Increase in Pedestrian Fatalities in Minnesota in 2024," https://krwc1360.com/25-increase-in-pedestrian-fatalities-in-minnesota-in-2024/

  5. Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths (Minnesota DPS Office of Traffic Safety), ACTS Legislative Report 2024, https://www.minnesotatzd.org/sites/minnesotatzd.org/files/2025-09/ACTS_Legislative_Report_2024.pdf

  6. City of Minneapolis, Vision Zero Safety Data, https://www.minneapolismn.gov/government/programs-initiatives/visionzero/vz-data-stats/

  7. City of Minneapolis, RCA-2024-01001, 26th Street East and Hiawatha Avenue (TH 55) Safety Improvement Project, https://lims.minneapolismn.gov/RCA/23517

  8. Minnesota Department of Transportation, "MnDOT to host April 10 public meeting for the Highway 55/Hiawatha Avenue project in Minneapolis," https://www.dot.state.mn.us/news/2025/03/27-metro-hwy55-meeting.html

  9. City of Minneapolis, Vision Zero Street Safety Improvements, https://www.minneapolismn.gov/government/programs-initiatives/visionzero/actions-taken/vz-projects/

  10. Minnesota Department of Transportation, Highway 252/I-94 EIS project page, https://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/projects/hwy252study/

  11. Star Tribune, "MnDOT has five options for interchanges if Hwy. 252 is rebuilt. One of them gets the nod," https://www.startribune.com/mndot-has-five-options-if-crash-prone-hwy-252-is-rebuilt-into-freeway-one-will-get-the-nod/601367155

  12. KSTP, "'I would vote no': Brooklyn Center Mayor, council members oppose MnDOT Hwy 252 freeway conversion project 'as it stands'," https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/i-would-vote-no-brooklyn-center-mayor-council-members-oppose-mndot-hwy-252-freeway-conversion-project-as-it-stands/

  13. City of St. Paul, Crash Analysis and Evaluation, Appendix A (Safe Streets for All), https://www.stpaul.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/Appendix%20A_CrashAnalysis.pdf

  14. City of St. Paul, Vision Zero Resolution, Appendix C, https://www.stpaul.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/Appendix%20C_VZResolution.pdf

  15. Minnesota Department of Transportation, Rethinking I-94 project update, https://www.dot.state.mn.us/news/2026/02/02-metro-rethinking-i94.html

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Written by: ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial

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