Deadliest Car Accidents to Happen in New Jersey

We researched over 15 years of data to find New Jersey’s deadliest roads. Here’s what we discovered.​

If you live in New Jersey and are worried about getting in a car accident, you’re not alone. As these car accident statistics we’ve compiled will show you, the state has some pretty dangerous intersections.

To help you navigate safely, we’ve compiled 15 years New Jersey car accident data into an interactive map to show you which intersections you should avoid to stay safe during your travels.

Legend:

10 worst 1-mile stretches of road in each county with the most cumulative deaths for that county

Any fatal car accident from 2004-2019

On the map, the skulls represent the areas with more than 10 accidents within a 1-mile stretch. You can hover your mouse over an area for information on how many accidents have occurred in that location.

Fatal Car Accidents in New Jersey

In addition to putting together the map, we poured through the data ourselves to identify stand-out data points about car accidents and fatalities in different counties.

The interactive map currently includes data from 2004 to 2018. However, we were able to dig up some shocking statistics for 2019. Let’s take a closer look at these numbers.

If we look at 2019 alone, we see that Camden moves up to #1 with 44 fatal car accidents. Middlesex is still ranked a close #2 for 2019, however, with 40 fatal car accidents.

The three safest counties in 2019 were Warren, Salem, and Hunterdon with only 9, 7, and 5 fatal car accidents, respectively.

Car accident fatalities in New Jersey

Looking at the number of fatal car accidents alone isn’t enough. As you’ll soon be able to see, one accident can lead to multiple fatalities. Fortunately, the number of fatalities doesn’t surpass the number of fatal car accidents by much.

From 2014 to 2019 (so far), there were 15,909 fatalities as a result of car accidents. Middlesex had the most fatalities during this time period at 1404, while Hunterdon had the least, with only 231.

When we look at 2019 data alone, Camden takes the #1 spot with 45 fatalities, pushing Middlesex to #2. Hunterdon maintains the bottom position with only 5 fatalities.

Additional observations

While looking at the data, we noticed a few things that are worth noting from the New Jersey State Police Crash Report:

• The majority of fatal accidents occur in heavily populated areas containing multiple intersections.
• Distracted driving is a leading cause of fatal car accidents. This includes everything from texting and driving to talking to kids in the back seat. In 2015, for example, 217 of the fatalities were caused by distracted driving.
• Holidays like Christmas, Halloween, Fourth of July, and Memorial Day can be especially dangerous times for driving. Surprisingly, the least dangerous holiday is New Year’s Eve, according to New Jersey State Police statistics, and the most dangerous period is the Christmas holiday period.