According to the website the Daily Beast, I-95 in Florida is the most dangerous road in the United States. Florida's I-4 ranked third. Analyzing five years of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data, The Daily Beast found the Florida stretches of these two Interstates were among those with the highest number of fatal car accidents.

To determine the ranking, the analysis broke each federal Interstate into stretches within individual states, tallied the number of fatal accidents on each stretch, and divided them by the number of miles. On I-95, there was an average of 1.73 fatal car accidents per mile during the period of 2004 through 2008.

Driver Distraction Is a Major Cause of Fatal Car Accidents

In a recent story, the Palm Beach Post interviewed Lieutenant Alex Annunziato of the Florida Highway Patrol, who works on one of the busiest sections of I-95 in Florida: the Miami-Dade/Broward County stretch.

Annunziato blames driver distractions -- such as cell phone use while driving, texting behind the wheel, video players, and even technology intended to help drivers, such as GPS navigation systems -- for many of the accidents. Driver distraction is a serious problem on any road, but Annunziato believes that the issue is magnified on super-congested highways like I-95.

"I think it's the volume coupled with the level of distraction that's present in the driving environment these days," he said in the Palm Beach Post interview. "That really is a recipe for what we've been seeing here."

Often enough, he is confronted by that distraction directly when he pulls drivers over. Even though they've been driving in congested traffic at speeds surpassing 60 miles per hour, they completely failed to notice his patrol car.

"They're completely startled. You can absolutely see it when my lights come on. They just have this look of, "Where did this guy come from?"

Annunziato went on to say that when he began working as a state trooper more than a decade ago, people would immediately notice his black-and-yellow police cruiser, slow down, and drive more carefully. Today, people are distracted enough that Annunziato sees how they drive when they're unaware of him.

"I get people passing me all the time. I see a lot of aggressive driving out there, a lot of lane-changing," he noted.

Heavy Traffic Volume Also Contributes to the Danger

Even though I-95 has stretches that are ten and twelve lanes wide in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, the traffic volume is still extremely high. The Florida Department of Transportation admits it is a problem.

"You may have an I-75 with the same number of lanes, but it doesn't service as many people, so you don't see as many accidents," FDOT Barbara Kelleher spokesperson told the Palm Beach Post.

The state simply can't afford to add lanes, she added, due to the enormous cost of buying up homes and rights of way that is necessary to expand. Instead, FDOT is in the process of implementing strategies including installing express lanes and using traffic signals at highway on-ramps to better regulate traffic flow.

Related Resource:

"I-95 in Florida is nation's deadliest highway" (The Palm Beach Post, June 7, 2010)