Wisconsin deadliest roads are in Milwaukee
Five of the worst nine roads are in state's largest population center
Five of the worst nine roads are in state's largest population center
Five of the worst nine roads are in state's largest population center
Several Milwaukee streets are named among the top nine most deadly in the state in a new analysis.
The deadliest is a five-mile stretch of Capitol Drive between Hopkins Street and Mayfair Road.
It’s likely no surprise to people who frequent that stretch of roadway. Twenty-three people have been killed in 19 crashes over the last 20 years there, making it the deadliest stretch of road in Wisconsin.
“We compared each five-mile segment against each five-mile segment in the entire state in order to find this stuff,” said the study’s author Brian Beltz with 1Point21 Interactive.
Their analysis was commissioned by the Milwaukee law firm Mingo and Yankala, using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Beltz said it was conducted with the hope that motorists will drive more carefully, and perhaps also avoid those stretches when they can.
He said if it can save even one life, it’s well worth doing. “Do something that maybe could prevent a family or someone from having to go through that, and by identifying deadly stretches of roads, we can potentially find areas that people can be aware of,” Beltz said.
The second-deadliest stretch in the state is also in Milwaukee. It’s Greenfield Avenue from First Street to 76th Street.
There were 17 fatal crashes with 18 people killed there.
“I think that it says we've got some work to do,” said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
He’s made targeting reckless driving a top priority, and just this week learned the city is getting $4.4 million in federal funding for roadway safety improvements, including on the top two deadliest stretches and a number of others “throughout the city of Milwaukee, to invest in those neighborhoods to make them safer for all users of the roadway. That's extremely important,” Johnson said.
The study found the most common contributing factors to the deadliest road designations include traffic volume, number of intersections and traffic speed.
The other deadly stretches in the top nine in Wisconsin that are located in Milwaukee include I-94 between the Marquette and Zoo Interchanges (5th), Green Bay Avenue between Pierce and Capitol (6th), and Appleton Avenue between Center and Bobolink (9th).
The other deadliest stretch in southeastern Wisconsin is Highway 31 in Kenosha between Highway 50 and 18th Street. With 12 people killed in 12 crashes, that ranked eighth in the state.
You can see the complete study on the Mingo and Yankala website here.
