If you drive in the Valley long enough, you develop a mental list of intersections you take more seriously than others. Maybe it's the stretch of 67th Avenue where it crosses Indian School Road, or the industrial corridor where 99th Avenue meets Lower Buckeye Road on the west side. Local drivers already sense which crossroads carry more risk than others. The data backs that instinct up, and it points to specific streets, specific years, and specific numbers.
Arizona recorded 121,107 traffic crashes in 2024, including 1,117 fatal crashes that killed 1,228 people, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation's annual Motor Vehicle Crash Facts report1. Maricopa County accounted for 88,094 of those crashes, or 72.74% of the statewide total, and 560 fatal crashes that killed 594 people1. Phoenix alone logged 37,472 crashes and 265 fatal crashes in 20241. Intersections concentrate a large share of that damage, and both the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and the city of Phoenix have spent the past several years trying to quantify exactly where.
West Phoenix carries the heaviest load
MAG, the regional planning agency for the Phoenix metro, screens crash risk at nearly 22,000 crash sites across the region using its Network Screening Methodology for Intersections, a formula first adopted in 2010 and revised in 20142. Applied to five years of crash data from 2018 through 2022, that screening produced a ranked list of the 100 highest-risk intersections in the region, which the MAG Transportation Safety Committee reviewed in November 20232.
West Phoenix dominates that list, and ADOT's own crash records show why. At 67th Avenue and Indian School Road, more than 260 crashes have piled up in recent years, making it one of the most collision-prone corners in the city3. A few miles south, 99th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road mixes commuter traffic with commercial trucks headed to nearby industrial yards, a combination that has produced one of the highest crash totals recorded anywhere in the state3. At 67th Avenue and McDowell Road, more than 220 crashes have been logged, many of them T-bone collisions from drivers running red lights or misjudging oncoming traffic3.
Other west-side crossroads carry their own patterns. Drivers at 27th Avenue and Camelback Road contend with frequent left-turn and pedestrian crashes, while 19th Avenue and Peoria Avenue has built a reputation for sideswipe and lane-change collisions as traffic weaves through multiple turn lanes3.
What Phoenix's own safety data shows
Phoenix runs a parallel safety effort. City Council voted on January 25, 2022 to fold Vision Zero, the philosophy that traffic deaths and serious injuries are preventable, into the city's Road Safety Action Plan4. The plan set aside roughly $10 million a year toward that goal5. The city's own risk analysis has flagged 43rd Avenue and Peoria Avenue, 67th Avenue and Thomas Road, and 19th Avenue and Union Hills Drive among the highest-ranked locations for fatalities and serious injuries5. Indian School Road itself is one of the corridor's most persistent problem spots, according to that same review5.
Volume isn't the only measure of danger. East Thunderbird Road and North Cave Creek Road sees fewer crashes overall than the west-side locations above it. It has still recorded eight fatal collisions in recent years, a rate that puts it among the deadliest single crossroads in the region3.
Growth is pushing the danger east and south
The East Valley isn't immune. Price Road and Queen Creek Road in Chandler has logged more than 100 crashes over a multi-year stretch as the surrounding area has filled in with new subdivisions and retail3. It's a pattern playing out region-wide: as more people move to the Valley, secondary surface streets absorb traffic that used to stay on the freeway, and crash totals climb on roads that were never built for the volume they now carry.
Certain collision types carry outsized risk statewide. Left-turn crashes accounted for 16,866 of Arizona's multi-vehicle crashes in 2024 and 127 fatal crashes, while angle collisions, common at unprotected intersections, caused 18,182 crashes and 96 fatal crashes1. Head-on collisions were comparatively rare, at 2,023 crashes statewide, but disproportionately deadly, contributing to 83 fatal crashes1. Nationally, intersections have long carried outsized risk. The Federal Highway Administration has found that roughly half of all crashes and injury crashes occur at or near an intersection6.
Prescott and Prescott Valley have their own hot spots
The Prescott area sits in the same media market but drives on a different set of roads. Yavapai County recorded 1,835 crashes in 2024, a small fraction of Maricopa County's total, but the county's death toll actually rose, from 47 people killed in 2023 to 63 in 20241. Prescott logged 623 crashes and 4 deaths; Prescott Valley logged 532 crashes and 3 deaths1.
Two roads keep showing up in local enforcement data: Glassford Hill Road and State Route 69. The Prescott Valley Police Department's 2025 traffic report named both as the corridors generating the highest concentration of violations. The department reported a 15% jump in traffic citations, a 30% increase in reckless-driving arrests and red-light violations, and a 2% rise in overall crashes for the year, most of it concentrated between October and December7. ADOT has been working the same problem from the infrastructure side. The agency finished a $9.8 million widening of SR-69 between Prescott Lakes Parkway and Frontier Village in November 2025, adding a third travel lane in each direction and a raised center median meant to cut down on the head-on and left-turn crashes common on two-lane stretches of the highway89.
Pedestrians carry a disproportionate share of the risk
Arizona's pedestrian fatality rate sits well above the national average: 3.60 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2024, compared to 2.10 nationally, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association10. Statewide, 263 pedestrians were killed in 2024, and pedestrian crashes were fatal 12.55% of the time, versus 3.19% for the bicycle crashes recorded that same year1. Intersections without protected turn phases, without adequate lighting, or with several lanes to cross on foot are where those numbers tend to concentrate.
If you're hurt at one of these intersections
If you're hurt in a crash at one of these locations, or anywhere else in the Valley or around Prescott, the intersection's history can matter to your claim. A documented crash history, a MAG risk ranking, or a spot on a city's high-injury list can support an argument that the road design itself, not just the other driver, played a role in what happened. An attorney who handles these cases regularly can help you figure out whether that applies. You can find one through the legal directory.
This article provides general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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Arizona Department of Transportation, "2024 Motor Vehicle Crash Facts for the State of Arizona," published July 9, 2025. https://azdot.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/2024-Crash-Facts.pdf
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Maricopa Association of Governments, Transportation Safety Committee agenda packet, November 28, 2023 (Item 6: Top 100 List of Intersections Ranked by Crash Risk). https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/f8/68/7c538a4d4a028b65f8aed5a2d012/tsc-2023-11-28-agenda-packet.pdf
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Matt Loeschman, "Phoenix intersections account for Arizona's most dangerous roads," Daily Independent / Phoenix Independent, June 30, 2026. https://www.yourvalley.net/phoenix-independent/stories/phoenix-intersections-account-for-arizonas-most-dangerous-roads,701584
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City of Phoenix, Road Safety Action Plan FAQ. https://www.phoenix.gov/administration/departments/streets/safety-improvements/road-safety-action-plan/road-safety-action-plan-faq.html
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ABC15 Arizona, "Little progress since Phoenix started Vision Zero," September 7, 2023. https://www.abc15.com/news/operation-safe-roads/little-progress-since-phoenix-started-vision-zero
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Federal Highway Administration, "Intersection Safety" fact sheet (2007 FARS data), hosted by the National Association of Counties. https://www.naco.org/sites/default/files/documents/IntersectionSafety.pdf
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The Prescott Times, "Prescott Valley Police Report Safer Roads in 2025 Following Increased Traffic Enforcement," January 9, 2026. https://theprescotttimes.com/news/prescott-valley-police-report-safer-roads-in-2025-following-increased-traffic-enforcement/article_b1396903-e468-411c-8e4a-9b85b11e2b11.html
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Arizona Department of Transportation, "SR 69 project will increase capacity, enhance safety in Prescott," July 3, 2024. https://azdot.gov/news/sr-69-project-will-increase-capacity-enhance-safety-prescott
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Arizona Department of Transportation, "ADOT completes widening on SR 69 in Prescott," November 5, 2025. https://azdot.gov/news/adot-completes-widening-sr-69-prescott
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Governors Highway Safety Association, "Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2024 Preliminary Data," July 2025. https://www.ghsa.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/Pedestrian%20Traffic%20Fatalities%20by%20State%20-%202024%20Data%20-%207.10.25.pdf