Las Vegas police keep a running tally of the valley's worst intersections, and if you've driven Flamingo Road near Rainbow, or tried to cross Charleston at Decatur during rush hour, you already know why. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) publishes an updated count of high-crash intersections roughly every month, broken out by its ten area commands, from Bolden and Downtown to Summerlin and Spring Valley.1 The specific rankings shift month to month, but a small group of intersections shows up again and again.
The corners that keep showing up
When LVMPD's Traffic Bureau released its first big count of 2025, covering January 1 through May 8, the five intersections with the most collisions were:2
- Flamingo Road and Rainbow Boulevard (Spring Valley), 26 crashes
- Sahara Avenue and Eastern Avenue, 24 crashes
- Charleston Boulevard and Lamb Boulevard, 23 crashes
- Tropicana Avenue and Jones Boulevard, 22 crashes
- Sahara Avenue and Maryland Parkway, 20 crashes
Lt. Anthony Cavaricci, who oversees the department's traffic division, didn't mince words about what the list means: "The choices you make while driving are potentially deadly and can end up in the death of yourself or another community member."2 Rounding out that spring's top 15 were Tropicana and Koval, Desert Inn and Eastern, Eastern and Warm Springs, Sahara and Decatur, Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon, Washington and Lamb, and Charleston and Nellis, among others.3
By January 2026, when Metro released its area-command breakdown for that single month, familiar names reappeared: Charleston and Decatur in the Bolden command, Eastern and Stewart plus Pecos and Stewart downtown, Rainbow and Flamingo again in Spring Valley, and Lamb and Lake Mead in the northeast.1 Then, as LVMPD kicked off enforcement for the "100 Deadliest Days" (Memorial Day through Labor Day, historically the worst stretch of the year for holiday-weekend and teen-driver crashes), the May 2026 hotspot list added Durango and Warm Springs, Decatur and Frias, Nellis and Vegas Valley, and Koval and Sands to the rotation.4 Fifty-seven people died on Clark County roads during that same 100-day window the year before.5
Charleston and Decatur's construction problem
One intersection has stood out lately for a specific reason. Charleston Boulevard and Decatur Boulevard topped Metro's list of a dozen intersections targeted for stepped-up enforcement, and nearby business owners point to an ongoing storm drain upgrade as the cause.6 Lane closures have "clogged lanes and confused drivers," one business owner told News 3 Las Vegas, and residents describe speeding, red-light running, and pedestrians dodging traffic mid-block because crosswalks feel unsafe. The Charleston and Decatur portion of the storm drain project isn't expected to finish until fall 2026, with the broader project running into 2027.6
The numbers behind the intersections
Individual crash counts matter, but the bigger story is fatalities. Nevada recorded 381 traffic deaths in 2025, a nearly 9% drop from 420 in 2024 and the state's first year back under 400 since 2021. Clark County's tally fell from 296 deaths in 2024 to 239 in 2025, about a 19% decline. Broken down by road user, the county's 2025 deaths included 85 vehicle occupants (34 of them unrestrained), 83 pedestrians, 58 motorcyclists, 12 bicyclists, and 1 rider of a scooter, moped, or ATV.7
Pedestrians and motorcyclists absorb an outsized share of that toll, and the longer trend isn't encouraging. Clark County traffic deaths have climbed more than 25% since 2016 and sit 61% higher than they did 15 years ago.8 A year earlier, the spike was even sharper in the short term: pedestrian deaths in the county jumped 53% in just the first half of 2024, to 52 deaths from January through June, compared with 34 in the same months of 2023.9 Zoom out to the whole state and the picture matches: Nevada's traffic fatality rate (deaths per 100 million miles driven) ranked sixth-highest in the country in 2024, and fatalities statewide are up 45% over the past decade, according to TRIP, a nonprofit transportation research group that tracks state-by-state crash trends. TRIP put the annual toll of Nevada's fatal and serious crashes at $18.1 billion in combined economic and quality-of-life losses.10
Within LVMPD's own jurisdiction, which covers unincorporated Clark County alongside several valley cities, 163 people died in crashes in 2025. That was the fifth straight year of increases and the department's worst total in two decades; it matched a total last seen in 2006.11
What's changing at the worst corners
Several agencies are now targeting these intersections directly, rather than just counting crashes. The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is using a $1.68 million federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant, plus roughly $320,000 in local match, to test physical fixes, speed tables, protected bike lanes, curb extensions, and possibly roundabouts, at high-crash corridors including Charleston and Eastern downtown and the Pecos and Stewart area.12 The RTC's outreach to nearly 7,000 valley residents found that 65% named speeding, red-light running, distracted driving, and impaired driving as their top safety concerns.12
The City of Las Vegas runs a parallel Vision Zero Action Plan, aiming to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2050 and organized around a citywide "High Injury Network" where crashes concentrate. Citywide, the plan estimates roughly one fatality and 3.5 serious injuries happen on Las Vegas streets every week.13 Separately, the city council approved a one-year, $402,000 pilot that installs radar and sensor units, not ticket-issuing red-light or speed cameras, at 12 locations, including Las Vegas Boulevard and Charleston, Vegas Drive and Decatur, and Torrey Pines Drive and Hyde Avenue, so traffic engineers can see how vehicles actually behave before deciding what to redesign.14 LVMPD also stood up a dedicated L.I.F.E. Squad (a lieutenant, two sergeants, and 20 officers) in September 2025; in its first five months, the unit made more than 19,000 traffic stops, wrote over 22,000 citations, and made about 100 DUI arrests.11
If you're hurt at one of these intersections
None of this makes any single crash your fault, and a known problem corner doesn't excuse a driver who ran a light or failed to yield. Nevada crash reports, LVMPD's monthly intersection data, and the city's own High Injury Network mapping can help establish what a specific corner like Charleston and Decatur or Flamingo and Rainbow is actually like on paper, not just by reputation. If you're sorting through injuries from a crash at one of these intersections, an attorney from the legal directory can help you connect the police report, the intersection's crash history, and any available camera or sensor data to your case.
This article is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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KTNV, "These are the 50 most dangerous valley intersections for January 2026," https://www.ktnv.com/news/these-are-the-50-most-dangerous-valley-intersections-for-january-2026
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Las Vegas Review-Journal, "These are the Las Vegas intersections with the most crashes in 2025," https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/these-are-the-las-vegas-intersections-with-the-most-crashes-in-2025-3370598/
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KTNV, "Las Vegas police list valley's most dangerous intersections so far in 2025," https://www.ktnv.com/news/las-vegas-police-list-valleys-most-dangerous-intersections-so-far-in-2025
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Fox5 Vegas, "New Las Vegas police data highlights busiest crash intersections across Las Vegas," https://www.fox5vegas.com/2026/06/08/new-las-vegas-police-data-highlights-busiest-crash-intersections-across-las-vegas/
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KTNV, "Las Vegas officials target dangerous summer driving spike during '100 Deadliest Days'," https://www.ktnv.com/news/las-vegas-officials-target-dangerous-summer-driving-spike-during-100-deadliest-days
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News 3 Las Vegas, "Construction makes Charleston and Decatur Las Vegas' most dangerous intersection," https://news3lv.com/news/local/construction-makes-charleston-and-decatur-las-vegas-most-dangerous-intersection
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Las Vegas Review-Journal, "Traffic deaths down 19 percent in Clark County as state sees lowest death toll since 2021," https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/traffic/positive-trend-2025-sees-lowest-traffic-death-count-in-nevada-since-2021-3605054/
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The Nevada Independent, "Nevada wants zero traffic deaths. The numbers tell a more complicated story.," https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/nevada-wants-zero-traffic-deaths-the-numbers-tell-a-more-complicated-story
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KTNV, "Ominous stat: Clark County records rise in pedestrian deaths due to crashes," https://www.ktnv.com/news/ominous-stat-clark-county-records-rise-in-pedestrian-deaths-due-to-crashes
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TRIP, "Addressing America's Traffic Safety Crisis" (Nevada news release), https://tripnet.org/reports/addressing-americas-traffic-safety-crisis-nevada-news-release-07-23-2025/
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News 3 Las Vegas, "The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept. is calling 2025 a historic year for public safety," https://news3lv.com/news/local/the-las-vegas-metropolitan-police-department-is-calling-2025-a-historic-year-for-public-safety
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News 3 Las Vegas, "RTC moves into testing phase of Safe Streets for All action plan," https://news3lv.com/news/local/rtc-moves-into-testing-phase-of-safe-streets-for-all-action-plan
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City of Las Vegas, Vision Zero Overview, https://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/Residents/Parking-Transportation/Transportation-Engineering/VZ-Overview
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KTNV, "'We need to step up and do something': Las Vegas leaders greenlight traffic camera pilot program," https://www.ktnv.com/news/we-need-to-step-up-and-do-something-las-vegas-leaders-green-light-traffic-camera-pilot-program