Accident Rate in Florida – Which City Had the Highest Number of Accidents?
The accident rate in Florida may be higher than you expect. The Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) publishes a report each year with statistics of exactly how many road accidents happen in Florida each year, while also showing reports of how fatal these accidents were.
Unfortunately, they don’t divide their data by city, so we don’t have any way of knowing exactly how many accidents took place in a particular city. They do, however, divide their data by counties.
Florida’s Integrated Report Exchange System (FIRES) reported the statistics of 2017 by ranking all 69 counties of Florida according to the number of accidents that took place that year.
The Miami-Dade County topped the list with about 65,509 accidents in 2017. That is an average of about 180 accidents per day.
The report further includes figures about the severity of the accidents.
About 43,780 accidents resulted in damage of property. A total of 32,215 injuries were caused, in about 21,452 car accidents that caused injury. There were 277 fatal crashes, resulting in 289 deaths. 52 of those were pedestrian deaths, and there were a total of 1,525 pedestrian accidents. Bicycle accidents added up to about 799 cases.
It isn’t surprising that Miami-Dade topped the list, considering it is the largest county in Florida. The county to come in second with 41,308 deaths in Broward County, which happens to be the second-largest country in Florida.
The reason behind this could possibly be the fact that higher population results in more congested roads, which ends up making drivers more aggressive. Additionally, densely populated areas require road maintenance on a more regular basis, causing them to stay under construction or restoration more often.
Other counties that have a high rate of accidents include, along with the number of car accidents:
- Orange County – 30,992
- Hillsborough County – 27,900
- Duval County – 24,685
- Palm Beach County – 23,914
- Pinellas County – 17,959
- Lee County – 12,695
- Polk County – 11,339
- Volusia County – 9,509
- Brevard County – 9,004
- Pasco County – 7,787
Car crashes are an awful experience. Nobody really expects to get into an accident; it just comes out of nowhere and depending on the severity of the crash, can turn your whole life upside down. This is why it is important to always be extra careful when on the road
