The most dangerous intersections in New York City

New York City just posted its safest year for traffic deaths since anyone started counting. Records go back to 1910, and 2025 broke them: 205 people died in city traffic that year, down from 253 in 2024, a 19 percent drop and one fewer death than the previous record year, 2018.¹ That's real progress, and it didn't happen evenly. A relatively small set of intersections and corridors still absorbs a disproportionate share of the serious injuries and deaths, and if you drive, walk, or bike through this city, you should know which ones they are.

Where New York City's crashes cluster

The city's own collision database, maintained by the NYPD as public data, shows how concentrated the risk is along a handful of wide, fast, multi-lane corridors.² Looking only at crashes reported since January 2022:

• Atlantic Avenue: 1,919 crashes, 1,236 people injured, 9 killed, including 4 pedestrians²
• Northern Boulevard: 1,241 crashes, 800 injured, 6 killed²
• Fordham Road in the Bronx: 1,065 crashes, 754 injured, 131 pedestrians hurt, and no deaths in that span²
• Queens Boulevard: 872 crashes, 497 injured, 4 killed²
• Grand Concourse: 668 crashes, 574 injured, 7 killed²
• Third Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn: 381 crashes, 250 injured²

Those are corridor-wide totals, spread across dozens of blocks and cross streets each, not single-intersection figures. Several of the same streets show up again once you zoom in on individual intersections.

The single worst intersection in each borough

In December 2025, Transportation Alternatives, working with Families for Safe Streets and Open Plans, published a map identifying 116 intersections citywide where five or more people have been killed or severely injured since January 2022, the threshold the groups used to define "dangerous."³ Nearly 3 million New Yorkers live within half a mile of one.³

Manhattan's worst by that count is West 120th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, with 9 people killed or severely injured across three crashes.³ Queens' worst is Northern Boulevard and 48th Street, also at 9, spread across five separate crashes.³ Brooklyn's is Flatbush Avenue and Avenue H, at 8, seven of them pedestrians.³ The Bronx's is Bruckner Boulevard and St. Ann's Avenue, also 8.³ Staten Island's is Hunton Street and Richmond Road, at 7.³

"Every day, over a million students cross dangerous intersections," Transportation Alternatives executive director Ben Furnas said when the map was released.³ The city tracks a version of this same list internally. DOT's Vision Zero View mapping tool and its "VZV Priority Intersections" dataset flag the intersections that together account for 15 percent of each borough's pedestrian deaths and severe injuries, the locations the city is supposed to prioritize for redesign work.⁴

Queens Boulevard shows what a fix looks like

Queens Boulevard earned the nickname "Boulevard of Death" honestly. Between 1990 and the mid-2010s, 186 people died on it, 138 of them pedestrians, with a peak of 18 pedestrian deaths in a single year, 1997.⁵ Starting in the late 1990s, the city extended crosswalk signal timing from as little as 32 seconds up to 60, widened medians with protective barriers, and cut the boulevard from 12 travel lanes down to 10.⁵ A more aggressive redesign followed starting in 2015.

On November 13, 2024, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced that the final phase was complete: a seven-mile stretch running from Queens Plaza to Hillside Avenue, now with the longest continuous protected bike lane on any city street. "Queens Boulevard is not the 'Boulevard of Death' anymore, but the 'Boulevard of Life,'" he said.⁶ Since the redesign began, traffic deaths on the boulevard are down 68 percent, overall injuries down 35 percent, and pedestrian injuries down 45 percent.⁶ The city has committed another $23 million in federal money and $1.5 million locally for the next stretch, from Roosevelt Avenue to 73rd Street.⁶

Two corridors where the fix stalled

Not every project moves that fast, and the data shows what happens when one doesn't. Transportation Alternatives' most recent annual report found that a 2.4-mile stretch of Third Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, between 15th and 65th Streets, recorded 11 people killed or severely injured after a planned redesign there stalled in 2024.⁷ Fordham Road in the Bronx recorded 35 since a separate project was paused in September 2023.⁷

Citywide, Transportation Alternatives counted 206 traffic deaths in 2025 in its own tally, including 112 pedestrians and 21 cyclists, even in the safest year on record.⁷ The Bronx and Queens drove most of the improvement, with traffic deaths down 38 percent and 22 percent in those boroughs after major redesign work, while Staten Island's count ticked up slightly and gains elsewhere were smaller.⁷

If you're hurt at one of these intersections

New York City logs thousands of crashes every month. Recent citywide monthly counts were 6,625 in April 2026, 6,488 in February 2026, and 6,773 in January 2026.^{8 9 10} If police respond, ask for the report number for the police accident report, form MV-104AN. If they don't, and the crash caused injury or more than $1,000 in damage, New York requires you to file your own MV-104 with the DMV within 10 days.¹¹ Either way, photograph the intersection, the signal, and any skid marks or debris before the scene is cleared. Signal timing and redesign history at a specific intersection can matter later, particularly at locations already flagged as high risk.

Given how specific this data gets down to the exact intersection, be just as specific with a lawyer about where and how a crash happened. You can find one through thatcarhitme.com's legal directory.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Gothamist, "NYC records its lowest number of traffic deaths ever in 2025," citing NYC DOT data, January 2, 2026: https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-records-its-lowest-number-of-traffic-deaths-ever-in-2025

2. NYC Open Data, "Motor Vehicle Collisions - Crashes" (NYPD), queried August 2026: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Public-Safety/Motor-Vehicle-Collisions-Crashes/h9gi-nx95

3. Transportation Alternatives, "The Most Dangerous Intersections in New York City: Transportation Alternatives Unveils Map with Brand-New Data," December 2025: https://transalt.org/press-releases/the-most-dangerous-intersections-in-new-york-city-transportation-alternatives-unveils-map-with-brand-new-data

4. NYC Open Data, "VZV Priority Intersections": https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Transportation/VZV_Priority-Intersections/2nj7-jxah

5. Patch, "Queens Road Sheds 'Boulevard Of Death' Reputation," December 7, 2017: https://patch.com/new-york/queens/queens-road-sheds-boulevard-death-reputation

6. NYC Department of Transportation, press release on completion of the Queens Boulevard redesign, November 13, 2024: https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pr2024/complete-queens-boulevard-redesign.shtml

7. Transportation Alternatives, "After 24/7 Speed Cameras, Safety Projects, and over a Decade of Vision Zero, Historically Safe 2025 on New York City's Streets Demonstrates the Need to Double Down on What Works," January 27, 2026: https://transalt.org/press-releases/after-247-speed-cameras-safety-projects-and-over-a-decade-of-vision-zero-historically-safe-2025-on-new-york-citys-streets-demonstrates-the-need-to-double-down-on-what-works

8. thatcarhitme.com, New York Crash Report, April 2026: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/new-york/new-york/april-2026-report

9. thatcarhitme.com, New York Crash Report, February 2026: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/new-york/new-york/february-2026-report

10. thatcarhitme.com, New York Crash Report, January 2026: https://thatcarhitme.com/crash-data/new-york/new-york/january-2026-report

11. New York State DMV, "File a Motorist Crash (Accident) Report" and Form MV-104 instructions: https://dmv.ny.gov/records/file-a-motorist-crash-accident-report