Nashville's Most Dangerous Intersections in 2026

Nashville's worst crashes cluster at a handful of named intersections, including Murfreesboro Pike and Bell Road, Nolensville Pike at Thompson Lane, and the Trinity Lane exit ramps off I-65, according to state and Metro crash data.

ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial
Jun 21, 2026
6 min read

Davidson County posted Tennessee's highest injury-crash rate of any county in the state from 2020 through 2024, according to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security's own crash rankings.1 Metro Nashville logged an average of 127 fatal crashes and nearly 24,600 total crashes a year over that same five-year stretch, second only to Shelby County (Memphis) in raw volume.1 Those crashes are not spread evenly across the county. Nashville's Vision Zero program has found that 2% of city streets account for 60% of fatal and serious injuries suffered by people on foot, and 6% of streets account for nearly 60% of all fatal and serious injuries across every mode of travel combined.2 Ninety percent of the intersections on that high-injury list sit in neighborhoods Metro classifies as highly vulnerable, meaning higher poverty and lower vehicle ownership.2 If you were hurt at one of the intersections below, the data says you had company.

Murfreesboro Pike and Bell Road

In the Antioch section of South Nashville, data from the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure (NDOT) counted 139 reported crashes within 250 feet of the Murfreesboro Pike and Bell Road intersection between September 2022 and September 2025.3 The breakdown:

  • 88 property-damage-only crashes
  • 31 with suspected minor injuries
  • 17 with possible injuries
  • 3 with suspected serious injuries

Angle crashes, often a sign of red-light running, and rear-end collisions made up the largest shares of that total, 51 and 49 respectively.3 Metro Councilmember Tasha Ellis has described the crossing as "almost eight lanes of traffic for a pedestrian that's walking across."3

The wider Murfreesboro Pike corridor is worse still. It logged roughly 2,600 crashes between January 2014 and August 2021, more than any other Nashville street tracked by the city, and it's part of Vision Zero's high-injury network.4 The corridor keeps producing tragedies. A 22-year-old man was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver near the Murfreesboro Pike and McGavock Pike intersection on December 22, 2024, after he was found standing in the roadway outside a crosswalk.5 On July 11, 2026, 48-year-old Mikel Holder died after being struck near Parks Retreat Drive during a heavy downpour. The driver told investigators he had no time to react.6

The Nolensville Pike corridor

Nolensville Pike saw more than 1,000 crashes from January 2014 through August 2021, the highest count on any Nashville street in that period.4 One of its recurring trouble spots is the crossing at Thompson Lane, where 30-year-old Dustin Brumley was struck and killed on December 3, 2023, by a driver witnesses say never slowed down.7 His death was the third pedestrian fatality in Nashville that same weekend, Metro police said at the time.7

Metro and federal officials are targeting a 2.5-mile stretch of the corridor, from McCall Street to Haywood Lane, with a $13 million Safe Streets and Roads for All grant announced in December 2023. The money is paying for high-visibility crosswalks, pedestrian hybrid beacons, leading pedestrian intervals in the signal timing, and curb bulb-outs meant to shorten crossing distances.8

Trinity Lane, Charlotte Avenue, and the Donelson Pike area

North Nashville has its own cluster. West Trinity Lane and Charlotte Avenue each saw close to 500 crashes between 2014 and 2021, putting them on the same high-injury list as Murfreesboro and Nolensville Pikes.4 At the West Trinity Lane exit ramp from I-65 North, 39-year-old Robert L. Jones was killed in an early-morning hit-and-run on April 4, 2025, while trying to cross at the traffic light.9 About a year later, on May 4, 2026, 58-year-old Billy Ray Swaner was struck and killed by a freight truck at East Trinity Lane and Gallatin Pike. A nearby coffee shop patron told a reporter the intersection sees frequent wrecks.10

Further east, the Harding Place and Donelson Pike intersection saw its own fatality on May 18, 2026, when a pedestrian was struck by the rear of a tractor-trailer after jumping onto the truck and falling back into the roadway.11

Why so many of these roads belong to the state

A lot of Nashville's worst corridors aren't really Nashville's to fix. TDOT, not Metro, owns and controls many of the routes on the city's high-injury network, including Murfreesboro Pike and Nolensville Pike, both of which double as state highways running straight through residential neighborhoods.12 That split in jurisdiction means signal timing, lane widths, and crosswalk placement on some of the most dangerous stretches in the city require state sign-off, not just a City Council vote.

What's changed, and what hasn't

Nashville counted 116 traffic deaths in 2024, down from 140 in 2023, or roughly two people killed every week on the city's streets.13 Metro has reduced speed limits on ten collector roads, launched 25 new traffic-calming projects as of March 2025, and converted more than 23,000 of the city's roughly 55,000 streetlights to brighter LED fixtures.13 Vision Zero Advisory Committee chair Peter Robison has acknowledged that big chunks of the plan remain stuck in the planning stage, in some cases after pushback from business owners along the corridors slated for redesign.13 Walk Bike Nashville's Meredith Montgomery put the core problem simply: drivers take their speed cues from how a road feels, not from the posted limit, so a wide, straight road like Gallatin Pike invites the kind of speeds that turn a crash into a fatality.13

If you're hurt at one of these intersections

Crashes at high-injury intersections tend to produce more complicated claims: multiple vehicles, government-owned roadways, and sometimes a driver who never stops. If you were injured at Murfreesboro Pike and Bell Road, along Nolensville Pike, or anywhere else on this list, document the scene if you're able, get the police report number, and hold onto any medical records from the start. An attorney experienced in Tennessee crash claims can help you sort out who's liable when a state highway and a city intersection meet. You can find one through the legal directory.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

  1. Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, "Tennessee Traffic Crash Data: County Rankings and Statistics by Emphasis Area, 2020-2024," TITAN Business Unit, March 2025: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/safety/documents/crash_stats/CountyCrashRankings.pdf

  2. Nashville.gov, "Mayor Cooper and NDOT Release Draft Vision Zero Action Plan For Public Review": https://www.nashville.gov/departments/transportation/news/mayor-cooper-and-ndot-release-draft-vision-zero-action-plan-public

  3. Fox17, "A call for safety fix at one of Nashville's most dangerous intersections": https://fox17.com/news/local/a-call-for-safety-fix-at-one-of-nashvilles-most-dangerous-intersections

  4. WSMV, "Nashville's most dangerous streets," January 19, 2023: https://www.wsmv.com/2023/01/19/nashvilles-most-dangerous-streets/

  5. Nashville.gov, Metro Nashville Police Department, "Pedestrian Killed in Hit and Run Crash Near Intersection of Murfreesboro and McGavock Pikes": https://www.nashville.gov/departments/police/news/pedestrian-killed-hit-and-run-crash-near-intersection-murfreesboro-and-mcgavock-pikes

  6. WSMV, "Driver says he had 'no time to react' after pedestrian killed in Antioch crash," July 11, 2026: https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/11/driver-says-he-had-no-time-react-after-pedestrian-killed-antioch-crash/

  7. WSMV, "Driver who hit, killed man crossing Nolensville Pike never slowed down, witnesses say," December 4, 2023: https://www.wsmv.com/2023/12/04/driver-who-hit-killed-man-crossing-nolensville-pike-never-slowed-down-witnesses-say/

  8. Nashville.gov, "We Are Nolensville Pike Project": https://www.nashville.gov/departments/transportation/plans-and-programs/vision-zero/nolensville-pike-project

  9. Nashville.gov, Metro Nashville Police Department, "Fatal Crash Investigators Working to Identify Hit and Run Driver who Struck Pedestrian": https://www.nashville.gov/departments/police/news/fatal-crash-investigators-working-identify-hit-and-run-driver-who-struck-pedestrian

  10. WSMV, "Pedestrian hit, killed by freight truck near Nashville intersection," May 4, 2026: https://www.wsmv.com/2026/05/04/pedestrian-hit-killed-by-freight-truck-near-nashville-intersection/

  11. Nashville.gov, Metro Nashville Police Department, "Pedestrian Fatally Injured at Harding Place/Donelson Pike Intersection": https://www.nashville.gov/departments/police/news/pedestrian-fatally-injured-at-harding-place/donelson-pike-intersection

  12. Nashville Scene, "Vision Zero's War on Cars": https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/citylimits/vision-zero-s-war-on-cars/article_f223a7b0-9c1f-11ed-90e4-1fcd9efa235a.html

  13. Nashville Banner, "Nashville road deaths and strategies for prevention," July 10, 2025: https://nashvillebanner.com/2025/07/10/nashville-road-deaths-vision-zero-initiative/

About This Guide

Written by: ThatCarHitMe.com Editorial

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