In northeast North Carolina, which counties are the most dangerous for driving?
The dubious top spot belongs to Wake County. In 2018, it had an accident rate that was nearly three times as high as Durham County, which the second-most-dangerous county. Johnston County, with I-95 running through the middle of the county, was the third-most-dangerous county for driving.
The accident rate is a measure of how many accidents occur per million miles driven. The crash statistics (see chart below) are from the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which publishes annual information by county.
Wake County also had the most fatalities in 2018, with 65, followed by Johnston (36) and Nash (30) counties.
The least-dangerous counties
The lowest accident rates in the state belonged to Hyde, Tyrell and Pamlico counties. Pamlico and Currituck were the only counties that did not have fatalities in 2018.
Crashes are on the rise in the state
Statewide, there were 313,878 crashes in 2018, with 1,443 fatalities. There were 125,513 injuries on North Carolina roads and highways.
In the last 20 years, the number of crashes statewide has been on a steady climb, with the number of crashes increasing 34 percent since 2011. From 2017 to 2018, the number of crashes increased by 2.9 percent.
2018 North Carolina Crash Statistics, By County
| Crashes | Fatalities | Crash Rate* | |
| Statewide | 313,878 | 1,443 | |
| Beaufort | 1,225 | 8 | 4.71 |
| Bertie | 470 | 7 | 3.16 |
| Camden | 203 | 5 | 1.61 |
| Carteret | 1,687 | 10 | 8.07 |
| Chowan | 284 | 1 | 1.23 |
| Craven | 2,473 | 11 | 10 |
| Currituck | 432 | 0 | 3.75 |
| Dare | 932 | 5 | 5.45 |
| Durham | 12,696 | 32 | 40.4 |
| Edgecombe | 1,440 | 12 | 5.34 |
| Franklin | 1,381 | 9 | 6.43 |
| Gates | 259 | 2 | 1.36 |
| Granville | 1,333 | 17 | 7.92 |
| Greene | 577 | 2 | 2.48 |
| Halifax | 1,572 | 16 | 6.87 |
| Hertford | 509 | 3 | 2.41 |
| Hyde | 114 | 1 | 0.54 |
| Johnston | 5,678 | 36 | 25.95 |
| Jones | 433 | 4 | 2.07 |
| Lenoir | 1,588 | 17 | 6.76 |
| Martin | 675 | 3 | 3.17 |
| Nash | 2,998 | 30 | 15.75 |
| Northhampton | 614 | 10 | 3.13 |
| Pamlico | 214 | 0 | 1.17 |
| Pasquotank | 1,088 | 6 | 3.51 |
| Perquimans | 219 | 3 | 1.67 |
| Pitt | 6,295 | 21 | 15.64 |
| Tyrell | 130 | 0 | 0.66 |
| Vance | 1,563 | 9 | 5.22 |
| Wake | 36,677 | 65 | 114.52 |
| Warren | 461 | 8 | 2.9 |
| Washington | 273 | 3 | 1.34 |
| Wayne | 3,159 | 19 | 12.48 |
| Wilson | 2,655 | 12 | 10.95 |
*Crash rate is the number of accidents per million miles driven.
Source: North Carolina Department of Transportation
Do you have questions?
If you have been injured in an accident and want to know what to do, contact the attorneys at Hardee & Hardee in Greenville.
