Indianapolis' deadliest highways and corridors

Indianapolis doesn't spread its worst crashes evenly across the map. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization has mapped a High Injury Network, the top 10% of the region's collector and arterial streets, about 234 centerline miles total, that accounts for a disproportionate share of Marion County's fatal and incapacitating crashes.¹ If you drive around Indy, you probably already sense which stretches feel different: the interstate split downtown, the long commercial corridors on the near-north and northeast sides, Washington Street running past downtown toward the airport. The data backs up that instinct, and INDOT and the city have paper trails on several of these roads specifically.

The interchange that used to log 300 crashes a year

The North Split, where I-65 and I-70 tangle together just north of downtown, was one of the roughest interchanges in the state before INDOT rebuilt it. The old configuration carried more than 300 crashes a year.² INDOT's $366.8 million reconstruction ran from 2021 to May 2023 and targeted the interchange's worst choke points: the Delaware Street ramp weave, the Pennsylvania Street ramp weave, the I-65/I-70 merge and lane drop, and the I-70 curve and merge just east of downtown.² Crashes across those four segments dropped 29% after the rebuild.² The North Split still ranks as the sixth-highest-volume interchange in Indiana, and INDOT has since moved to the next phase, reconstructing I-65 south of downtown from Hanna Avenue past Fletcher Avenue.²

The interstate work doesn't stop at downtown's edge. INDOT's 2022 Safety and Mobility Needs Summary flagged 115 miles of I-70 statewide for potential safety issues tied to crash frequency and severity, and the agency's 2023 Freight Plan named two four-lane sections as hot spots for fatal truck crashes.³ The 16 miles of I-70 inside I-465, including the stretch past Washington Street, Rural Street and Keystone Avenue, Emerson Avenue, and Shadeland Avenue, are under a separate safety and capacity review through INDOT's ProPEL Indy study.³ INDOT's own before-and-after data shows that widening a four-lane interstate to six lanes cuts fatal crashes by 32% and injury crashes by 15%, part of the case the agency has made for finishing the roughly 112 miles of I-70 statewide still built to the original 1969 four-lane standard.³

Pendleton Pike: the five miles INDOT says beat the state average

On the northeast side, INDOT has built an entire project file around Pendleton Pike, also signed as U.S. 36 and State Road 67. The agency's own fact sheet for the corridor says the five-mile stretch from I-465 to 65th Street sees more frequent and more severe crashes than the statewide average.⁴ INDOT blames a familiar mix: a high-traffic corridor, few gaps for left turns out of the center lane, and aggressive driving.⁴ The fix under design is a run of raised concrete medians in place of the current center turn lane, pushing left-turning drivers to the nearest signalized intersection instead of cutting across live lanes, plus a realignment of the 56th Street intersection into two T-intersections and a new signal at Thunderbird Road.⁴ The project also fills in missing sidewalk near 56th Street. Construction was expected to begin in 2024 and run up to two years.⁴

Washington Street and the corridor's speed problem

Washington Street carried roughly 10% of every pedestrian and cyclist crash tracked citywide in 2023, 68 of 680 incidents, more than any other single street.⁵ Part of the reason shows up in speed checks: on a stretch of East Washington Street posted at 35 mph, monitors clocked drivers at 50, 63, and 66 mph.⁶ The danger isn't theoretical. On the night of August 14, 2024, a driver in the 8000 block of West Washington Street, near the airport, struck and killed 54-year-old Trampest Lamar Richie as he tried to cross the street. Police said the driver never saw him.⁷

Downtown intersections carry an outsized share of that risk on their own. A Department of Public Works study found that 77% of vehicle-pedestrian crashes in the urban core happen at intersections, and that 56.7% of those downtown crashes involve a turning vehicle failing to yield, more than double the 24.8% rate seen outside downtown.⁶ The city's response was to post "no turn on red" signs at 97 downtown intersections in the summer of 2023.⁶

38th Street and the Keystone Avenue crash record

Farther north, 38th Street has its own reputation. Residents along the corridor spent nearly a year complaining about speeding and near-miss crashes before the Department of Public Works installed Miovision Scout units, cameras that log speed and near-collision data around the clock, first at Martin Luther King Jr. Street and Michigan Street and later near Illinois Street.⁸ "You don't pick up the almost," a DPW official said of ordinary crash reports. The camera data fills that gap.⁸ The intersection of 38th Street and Keystone Avenue has produced crashes serious enough to stand on their own: in November 2021, a driver fleeing police at high speed struck multiple vehicles there, killing one person and injuring two others.⁹

What the countywide numbers show

Step back from individual corridors and the countywide pedestrian toll adds up fast. Between 2010 and 2021, drivers struck and killed 243 pedestrians in Marion County, according to a Health by Design analysis of Indiana's official ARIES crash data.¹⁰ In 2021 alone, the county logged 259 pedestrian crashes, 27 of them fatal, and 61% of all pedestrian crashes that year were fatal or incapacitating.¹⁰ Most of that danger clusters after dark and away from intersections: 89% of 2021 pedestrian deaths happened in low light, and 81% happened somewhere other than a marked intersection.¹⁰ One in five pedestrian crashes that year, 53 of 259, was a hit-and-run.¹⁰ Smart Growth America's most recent Dangerous by Design report ranks the Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood metro 47th out of the 101 largest U.S. metro areas for pedestrian deaths, with a rate of 2.17 per 100,000 residents from 2020 through 2024, up from 170 pedestrian deaths metro-wide in 2015-2019 to 231 in the more recent five-year window.¹¹

Where the city is focused next

The city's response runs through the MPO's rotating intersection safety studies. The most recent round identified 25 high-crash locations across the metro planning area, including five priority spots for pedestrians and cyclists.¹ The Indianapolis City-County Council passed a Vision Zero resolution in 2024 setting a goal of zero traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2035, with a task force appointed by the council and Mayor Joe Hogsett overseeing the rollout.¹² Independent tracking backs up the urgency behind that goal: the volunteer-run Indy Pedestrian Safety Crisis project counted 565 pedestrians and cyclists struck by drivers through early September 2024, with 30 deaths that year and half of those fatalities tied to hit-and-run drivers.¹²

If you're hurt on one of these roads

None of this means every crash on Pendleton Pike or at the North Split was unavoidable, but it does mean insurers and defense lawyers are often already aware of a corridor's crash history before your claim reaches them. Documentation still matters just as much: the police report, photos of the specific lane configuration or intersection, and medical records that tie your injuries to the date and location of the crash. If you're not sure how to handle a claim or want help finding representation, the legal directory lists attorneys who handle Indiana crash cases.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

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

2. WRTV, "INDOT: North Split Reconstruction Project reduced crashes by 29% in hot-spot areas," https://www.wrtv.com/news/wrtv-investigates/indot-north-split-reconstruction-project-reduced-crashes-by-29-in-hot-spot-areas

3. Indiana Department of Transportation and Indiana Finance Authority, "Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program Application for I-70 in Indiana," September 8, 2025, https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/I-70_ISRRPP_Application_Sep08.pdf

4. Indiana Department of Transportation, "Pendleton Pike Progress" fact sheet, https://www.in.gov/indot/files/Pendleton-Pike_fact-sheet_FINAL.pdf

5. WTHR, "Crashes involving pedestrians, cyclists in Indianapolis surpass last year's total," https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/indianapolis-crashes-involving-pedestrians-cyclists-surpass-last-years-total/531-522f8df5-d075-4326-a3ae-0c9b49a0350f

6. Fox59, "Indianapolis pedestrian safety: Addressing dangerous downtown Indy intersections," https://fox59.com/investigations/the-most-dangerous-place-to-walk-in-indy-dpw-says-its-downtown-intersections/

7. WISH-TV, "Fatal crash involves car, pedestrians on Washington Street near airport," https://www.wishtv.com/news/local-news/fatal-crash-involves-car-pedestrians-on-washington-street-near-airport/

8. Fox59, "New technology hopes to solve reckless driving along 38th Street," https://fox59.com/indiana-news/new-technology-hopes-to-solve-reckless-driving-along-38th-street/

9. WTHR, "IMPD: 1 killed, 2 others hurt in 38th & Keystone crash," https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/impd-1-killed-2-others-hurt-in-38th-keystone-crash/531-208fb7c9-bae0-4a38-adf9-6a12c96cd3ab

10. Health by Design, "Marion County Pedestrian Crash Data Report - 2022," https://healthbydesignonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Marion-County-Pedestrian-Crash-Data-Report.pdf

11. Smart Growth America, "Dangerous by Design 2026: State and Metro Rankings," https://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/signature-reports/dangerous-by-design/2026-dbd-rankings/

12. Mirror Indy, "Indianapolis drivers hit 100+ cyclists and pedestrians last month," https://mirrorindy.org/indianapolis-traffic-fatalities-cyclists-pedestrians-killed-vision-zero-plan/