Kansas City's deadliest highways and corridors

Missouri and Kansas both track the worst crash corridors around Kansas City, from the I-435/I-70 interchange and the aging I-70 rebuild to Troost Avenue, Prospect Avenue, and Wyandotte County's highest-crash intersections.

ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial
Jul 3, 2026
7 min read

Kansas City straddles a state line, and so does its crash data. Missouri and Kansas track fatal wrecks separately, but drivers crossing between Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas run into the same handful of dangerous corridors no matter which side of State Line Road they're on. Kansas City, Missouri recorded 68 traffic deaths in 2025, a 30% drop from the 97 killed in 2024 and 102 killed in 2023, according to Kansas City Police Department data reported by KCUR.1 Missouri's statewide count fell too: 911 fatalities in 2025, down from 955 in 2024 and 14% lower than 2022, MoDOT announced.2 Kansas moved the other direction. After a record-low 347 deaths in 2024, the fewest since the state started keeping records in 1947,3 preliminary 2025 figures showed a roughly 10% jump, to around 359.4

Where the interstates turn deadly

The interchange locals complain about most is where Interstate 435 crosses Interstate 70 on the city's east side. More than 200,000 vehicles a day passed through the old interchange, built roughly 60 years ago with left-hand exits that MoDOT itself flagged as a safety problem, since merging and weaving through them caused frequent crashes.5 The department tore down four bridges, replaced them with ten new structures, and built Kansas City's first partial turbine interchange in a $47 million project finished in December 2020.5

I-70 itself isn't finished. MoDOT's Improve I-70 program covers an 18-mile stretch from the Kansas-Missouri state line east past the I-470 interchange,6 and in early 2027 the department plans to fully close both directions between Prospect Avenue and Van Brunt Boulevard for 11 months, a $237 million rebuild that will realign the Benton and Jackson curves and replace more than 20 bridges on a highway that's over 60 years old.7 Drivers should expect 210 Highway, Independence Avenue, Truman Road, 23rd Street, 31st Street, Linwood Boulevard, and Gregory Boulevard to absorb the detour traffic.7

South of downtown, U.S. 71 (Bruce R. Watkins Drive) carries its own history of harm. The highway began as a line on Kansas City's 1947 city plan and wasn't finished until 2001; building it displaced roughly 2,000 homes and 25,000 people, most of them Black residents of the Eastside.8 A 1985 consent decree from the resulting civil rights lawsuit still limits how much the road's design can change.8 Today the corridor is dangerous for pedestrians who have to cross six lanes of highway-speed traffic to reach businesses and bus stops on the other side.8 The city landed a $5 million federal RAISE planning grant to study fixes,9 and in April 2026 officials floated a "Parkway" concept for the stretch between 85th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that would separate through traffic from local streets with new underpasses and overpasses, with public comment open through May 8.10

The high injury network inside the city

Move off the interstates and Kansas City's own numbers point to a short list of repeat offenders. Since adopting a Vision Zero resolution in May 2020 with a goal of zero traffic deaths by 2030, the city has used 2015-2019 crash data to build a "high injury network": just 12% of city streets account for 68% of fatal and serious-injury crashes.11 An analysis of 2022-2023 crash records ranked Truman Road, Independence Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Troost Avenue, and Ward Parkway as the five deadliest streets in the city, with 12 deaths on Truman Road alone; the worst intersections were Prospect Avenue and 63rd Street, Shoal Creek Parkway and Missouri 152, and 31st Street and Van Brunt Boulevard.12 Forty-five people died at intersections over that same two-year span, and Black residents made up 40% of pedestrian deaths despite being 26% of the city's population, with more than half of all pedestrian fatalities occurring east of Troost.12

Troost shows how slowly fixes arrive. At 51st Street and Troost, the city recorded seven crashes between 2018 and 2022, three of them serious or fatal, and neighbors had asked for a stoplight for years.13 On September 26, 2024, a UMKC piano student named Yuxi Wu was struck and killed crossing the four-lane road there when a driver sped around cars that had stopped for her.13 The stoplight went in the following May.1 The city's Vision Zero program, now funded at $8 million a year (double its prior budget), completed more than 40 projects in 2025 including 13 "road diets," pushing its running total past 400 since 2020. Wornall Road is being narrowed from four lanes to two with a center turn lane, and a two-mile stretch of Prospect Avenue between Linwood Boulevard and Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard is getting a $10 million federal-grant rebuild.1

Missouri's statewide numbers show a similar split: motorist deaths fell in 2024, but pedestrian deaths hit a record, with nearly 150 killed statewide, a 16% jump from 2023.14 The Missouri State Highway Patrol's Troop A, which covers Jackson, Clay and Platte counties, logged 24 fatal crashes in 2024, including three on Prospect Avenue, several more on Troost Avenue, I-435, and Missouri 78, and a pedestrian death at U.S. 40 and Chrysler Avenue in Independence.14

Wyandotte County's own danger list

On the Kansas side, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas launched its own Vision Zero effort in January 2025, partnering with Bonner Springs, Edwardsville, and Lake Quivira after finding the county has one of the state's highest traffic fatality rates, concentrated among pedestrians and cyclists.15 A ten-year review of roughly 40,000 crashes, more than 10,000 of them involving injury, pointed planners toward a specific list of high-crash locations: Parallel Parkway between 64th Terrace and 67th Street, the Rainbow Boulevard and Southwest Boulevard intersection, 18th Street between Ridge Avenue and I-70, 55th Street between Metropolitan Avenue and Swartz Road, Front Street and Loring Lane between Kaw Drive and Stillwell Road, and the K-32/98th Street junction.15 The county aims to finalize its plan by April 2026 before applying for a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant that could bring in up to $25 million.15

How Kansas City stacks up nationally

Allstate's annual America's Best Drivers Report, built from claims data covering roughly 10% of U.S. auto policies, ranked Kansas City, Missouri 101st out of the 200 largest U.S. cities in its 2025 edition, down from 17th in 2015, the steepest drop of any comparable metro; drivers there now average a collision every 8.98 years against a 10.56-year national average.16 Kansas City, Kansas fell further in relative terms, from 1st in 2015 to 44th in 2025, though the 2026 edition showed it climbing back 29 spots.17

After a crash on one of these roads

If you're hurt in a wreck on any of these corridors, the road's known history can matter for your claim. A documented high-crash intersection, an active MoDOT or KDOT safety study, or a Vision Zero project already scheduled for that stretch can all support an argument that the danger was foreseeable. Save your crash report, photos of the intersection or signage, and any medical records tied to the crash. An attorney from the legal directory can help you sort out whether a road defect, a signal timing problem, or another driver caused your injuries.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

  1. KCUR, "Kansas City saw traffic deaths drop by 30% in 2025. Its effort to make roads safer is working," https://www.kcur.org/housing-development-section/2026-01-06/kansas-city-traffic-deaths-2025-vision-zero-road-safety

  2. Missouri Department of Transportation, "Missouri Officials Announce Third Consecutive Year of Declining Traffic Fatalities," https://www.modot.org/node/82588

  3. KWCH, "Kansas records lowest number of traffic fatalities in decades in 2024," https://www.kwch.com/2025/01/27/kansas-traffic-fatalities-recorded-its-lowest-number-decades-2024/

  4. KAKE, "Kansas sees record-low traffic fatalities in 2024, but 2025 trends spark concern," https://www.kake.com/home/kansas-sees-record-low-traffic-fatalities-in-2024-but-2025-trends-spark-concern/article_5bbfab2c-dd11-11ef-baf2-13b1610ed7bf.html

  5. Midwest Contractor, "I-435/I-70 Interchange Upgrades Create Safer Roadway in Kansas City," https://acppubs.com/MWC/article/C502C954-i-435-i-70-interchange-upgrades-create-safer-roadway-in-kansas-city

  6. Missouri Department of Transportation, "Improve I-70 KC: History," https://www.modot.org/improvei70kc/history

  7. KSHB, "Kansas City facing 11-month Interstate 70 closure starting in 2027," https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/transportation/kansas-city-facing-11-month-i-70-closure-starting-in-2027

  8. KCUR, "Highway 71 tore through Kansas City's Black neighborhoods. Can that damage be repaired?," https://www.kcur.org/history/2025-04-30/highway-71-bruce-r-watkins-drive-kansas-city-history

  9. City of Kansas City, Missouri, "Mayor Lucas to Announce $5 Million RAISE Planning Grant to Study Improvements to US 71 Highway/Bruce R. Watkins Drive," https://www.kcmo.gov/city-hall/city-officials/mayor-quinton-lucas/mayor-lucas-press/press-releases/mayor-lucas-to-announce-5-million-raise-planning-grant-to-study-improvements-to-us-71-highway-bruce-r-watkins-drive

  10. KCTV5, "Kansas City seeks to reconnect east side by reimagining U.S. 71 corridor," https://www.kctv5.com/2026/05/01/kansas-city-seeks-reconnect-east-side-by-reimagining-us-71-corridor/

  11. City of Kansas City, Missouri, "Vision Zero Action Plan," https://www.kcmo.gov/city-hall/departments/public-works/vision-zero-mobility/vision-zero-action-plan

  12. The Beacon, "Data dive: Why Kansas City car crashes are so dangerous," https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2024/07/08/kansas-city-car-crashes-data-dive/

  13. KCTV5, "Calls for stoplight at 51st and Troost grow after pedestrian hit and killed," https://www.kctv5.com/2024/09/27/calls-stoplight-51st-troost-grow-after-pedestrian-hit-killed/

  14. KSHB, "Missouri traffic data offers good news for motorists, bad news for pedestrians," https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/transportation/overall-roadway-fatalities-decrease-missouri-sees-record-highs-in-pedestrian-deaths

  15. The Beacon, "Wyandotte County advances safer streets plan, ponders utility rates," https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/2026/03/23/utility-rates-safer-streets-wyandotte-county/

  16. PR Newswire / Allstate, "2025 Allstate America's Best Drivers Report Reveals the Safest and Riskiest Driving Cities," https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2025-allstate-americas-best-drivers-report-reveals-the-safest-and-riskiest-driving-cities-302484810.html

  17. Allstate Newsroom, "Allstate America's Best Drivers Report Reveals the Safest U.S. Cities, Ways for Drivers to Lower Crash Risks and Costs," https://www.allstatenewsroom.com/news/2026-allstate-americas-best-drivers-report-reveals-the-safest-and-riskiest-driving-cities/

About This Guide

Written by: ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial

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