The most dangerous intersections in Raleigh, Durham, and Fayetteville

If you got hit at an intersection anywhere in the Triangle or around Fayetteville this year, the location probably isn't a surprise to the people who live near it. State and local crash data released over the past year keep pointing at the same handful of interchanges: Capital Boulevard in Wake County, the I-440 Beltline, I-85 through Durham, and a cluster of arterial crossings in Fayetteville that the city has now flagged for a safety overhaul. Here's what the numbers actually show, county by county, and what to do if you're the next name on one of these lists.

Wake County keeps circling back to Capital Boulevard

When WRAL Investigates obtained North Carolina Department of Transportation crash records for the first half of 2025, the state's own count of crashes within 150 feet of Wake County intersections looked like this¹:

• I-40 and Aviation Parkway: 44 crashes
• I-440 and Capital Boulevard: 41 crashes
• I-440 and Glenwood Avenue: 38 crashes
• I-440 and Wake Forest Road: 37 crashes
• I-40 and Saunders Street: 36 crashes
• I-540 and Capital Boulevard: 36 crashes
• Brier Creek Parkway and Glenwood Avenue: 34 crashes
• I-440 and Lake Boone Trail: 33 crashes
• Glenwood Avenue and TW Alexander Road: 30 crashes
• NC 55 and Judd Parkway: 29 crashes

That's six months of data, not a year, and NCDOT public information officer Kim Deaner told WRAL the agency uses these counts to look for patterns rather than to crown a single worst location¹. For pedestrians and cyclists, though, one Raleigh intersection has a clearer, uglier distinction: Capital Boulevard at Calvary Drive has ranked first in North Carolina for pedestrian and bicycle crashes for three years running, according to NCDOT data reported by ABC11². Five people were killed along a one-mile stretch of Capital Boulevard just north of the Louisburg Road split in a single recent year, and another died trying to cross at Calvary Drive itself; the crosswalk there gives pedestrians only 20 to 30 seconds to get across². Buffaloe Road at New Hope Road ranks as Raleigh's most dangerous intersection overall and 23rd statewide².

North of the city, Wake Forest police keep their own list, and Capital Boulevard shows up five separate times on it. The corridor's intersections with Dr. Calvin Jones Highway, Burlington Mills Road, and Stadium Drive at Jenkins Road logged 39, 32, and 25 crashes³.

The city of Raleigh's own Vision Zero data puts the countywide toll in context. In 2022, Raleigh recorded roughly 50,000 crashes, 53 of them fatal, killing 59 people, including 24 pedestrians⁴. Fifty-one of those 59 deaths happened on NCDOT-maintained roads rather than city streets, and the city notes that a pedestrian struck at 40 mph has an 80% chance of dying⁴. In April 2026, Raleigh's City Council adopted a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan built on crash data from 2019 through 2023, a period with 185 fatal crashes and 905 serious-injury crashes citywide. Intersections accounted for nearly half of that total, and the plan names New Bern Avenue and the Hillsborough Street intersection with North Boylan Avenue as priority locations for redesign⁵. The stated goal is to cut fatal and serious-injury crashes in half by 2040⁵.

Durham's crash pattern runs along I-40, I-85, and NC 55

Durham's numbers, pulled from the same NCDOT records WRAL requested for January through July 2025, put I-40 at NC Highway 55 on top with 28 crashes, followed by I-85 at Avondale Drive with 25 and I-85 at Roxboro Street with 23, tied with NC 54 at NC 55⁶. WRAL has been writing about I-85 and Roxboro Street for years, and as of a 2021 NCDOT assessment, no improvements were even planned there⁶.

The city of Durham takes a wider view through its Vision Zero program, adopted in 2017. Its High Injury Network, roughly 130 centerline miles built from crash data collected between 2016 and 2023, covers only 10% of city streets but accounts for 74% of the fatal and serious-injury crashes inside Durham⁷. Fayetteville Street, Holloway Street, Roxboro Street, Mangum Street, and the Duke Street and Gregson Street corridors all sit on that network, and the city says an average of 23 people die in Durham crashes every year⁷. A new action plan covering 2025 through 2029 is meant to bring that number down.

Fayetteville and Cumberland County have fewer crashes and worse odds

Fayetteville's most current numbers are also its most granular. In July 2026, the city held a public meeting on a possible roundabout at Good Middling Drive and Two Bale Lane in west Fayetteville after NCDOT's 2026 Highway Safety Improvement Program flagged the intersection for 79 crashes over five years, more than the other three city-maintained intersections combined⁸.

That single intersection fits a pattern the city has already mapped. Under its own Safe Streets and Roads for All plan, Fayetteville found that just 8% of its road miles account for about 76% of all fatal and serious-injury crashes, and just 2% of intersections account for roughly 42% of them, based on 675 such crashes between 2019 and 2023⁹. The corridors driving those numbers are Rosehill Road, Cliffdale Road, Murchison Road, Skibo Road, and Raeford Road⁹. Pedestrians carry a disproportionate share of the danger: seven pedestrians and one cyclist were killed in Fayetteville in 2025 alone, on top of 741 pedestrian and bicycle crashes recorded between 2014 and 2023¹⁰.

The county around the city is now the deadliest in North Carolina on a per-capita basis. Cumberland County logged 57 traffic deaths in 2024, one for every 22,536 residents, worse than Wake County at one per 54,090 or Mecklenburg County at one per 29,100¹¹. Drunk driving killed 11 people in Cumberland County in 2024, up from just four in 2020, making it third in the state for impaired-driving deaths¹¹.

If you're hurt at one of these intersections

North Carolina gives you three years from the date of a crash to file a personal injury lawsuit, under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-52(5), and the clock doesn't pause because a claim is complicated or a case is still sitting with an adjuster¹². Given how many of these crashes happen on NCDOT-maintained roads rather than city streets, figuring out which agency's records and design decisions matter to a specific wreck often takes as much work as the crash report itself. If you're trying to sort that out, the legal directory can point you to an attorney who already knows these roads.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. WRAL, "These intersections have the most crashes in Wake County: What improvements are being made?" https://www.wral.com/news/investigates/intersections-most-crashes-wake-county-improvements-2025/

2. ABC11, "These 21 intersections are most 'dangerous' in Raleigh, NCDOT says" https://abc11.com/post/dangerous-intersections-nc-raleigh-city-leaders-looks-improve-safety-dozens-areas/15977387/

3. CBS17, "Risky roads: Wake Forest's top 6 crash zones" https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/wake-county-news/risky-roads-wake-forests-top-6-crash-spots/

4. City of Raleigh, "Data to Support the Need for Vision Zero" https://raleighnc.gov/fire/services/vision-zero/data-support-need-vision-zero

5. City of Raleigh, "City Finalizes Comprehensive Safety Plan for Safer Streets" https://raleighnc.gov/transportation/news/city-finalizes-comprehensive-safety-plan-safer-streets

6. WRAL, "Which intersections in Durham County have the most crashes? WRAL Investigates got the data" https://www.wral.com/news/investigates/durham-county-intersections-crashes-i40-nc55-january-july-2025/

7. City of Durham, "Vision Zero" https://www.durhamnc.gov/2995/Vision-Zero

8. Yahoo News, "Roundabout proposed for crash-prone Fayetteville intersection" https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/roundabout-proposed-crash-prone-fayetteville-090241438.html

9. City of Fayetteville, "SS4A Comprehensive Safety Action Plan (CSAP)" https://www.fayettevillenc.gov/City-Departments/Public-Services/Traffic-Services/SS4A-Comprehensive-Safety-Action-Plan-CSAP

10. CBS17, "After deadly crashes, Fayetteville addressing pedestrian safety" https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/cumberland-county-news/after-deadly-crashes-fayetteville-addressing-pedestrian-safety/

11. WKML, "Cumberland County Leads North Carolina in Per-Capita Traffic Deaths, Alcohol Fatalities Rise" https://wkml.com/2025/03/05/cumberland-county-leads-north-carolina-in-per-capita-traffic-deaths-alcohol-fatalities-rise/

12. North Carolina General Assembly, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-52 https://www.ncleg.gov/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_1/gs_1-52.html