Note: This map of the deadliest roads in Louisiana below is interactive. You can zoom in on any area and click on any circle to get the date of the crash, the primary road, the number of fatalities and the name of the city (NA means the city name was not provided in the original data). Larger circle sizes indicate crashes with more fatalities.

From 2015 – 2017, there were 2,098 fatal crashes in the state of Louisiana – leaving 2,269 people dead. Which roads involved the most fatal crashes? We crunched the numbers to find out.

The Deadliest Roadways in Louisiana

Categorized by highway, these are the top twenty roads with the highest number of fatal crashes and total fatalities.

Name of Highway Total Fatal Crashes Total Fatalities Fatal Crashes Involving a Drunk Driver
I-10 121 136 39
US-190 48 54 12
I-20 49 52 13
US-90 50 52 21
SR-1 45 48 15
US-61 34 38 8
I-49 29 37 4
US-165 30 31 4
I-12 25 26 8
US-171 26 26 8
SR-10 15 21 10
US-61 AIRLINE HWY 19 21 2
SR-16 18 20 8
US-167 18 20 6
US-71 17 20 4
SR-182 16 19 6
I-55 17 18 7
SR-308 16 17 6
SR-27 10 14 4
US-80 14 14 5

Unsurprisingly, Interstate 10 had by far the largest numbers of total fatal crashes, total fatalities, and fatal crashes involving a drunk driver. It’s the only highway in Louisiana with triple-digit fatal crashes and fatalities. This is likely for a few reasons:

  • I-10 is by far the most traveled highway in the state, serving as the primary road that connects Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans – the four largest cities in Louisiana.
  • It is the longest Interstate highway in Louisiana, spanning nearly 275 miles from Texas to Mississippi.
  • Because it connects directly to Texas and Mississippi, it is a major route for trucks, tourists, and others who are traveling cross-country in a vehicle.

US-190 was a distant second, with 49 fatal crashes leading to 54 total fatalities. An east-west highway running from the Texas state line to the small city of Slidell, this is this longest US highway in Louisiana at 281.135 miles – slightly longer than I-10 above.

The most glaring part of this list are highways which seem to have an abnormally high percentage of fatal crashes involving drivers who are drunk or intoxicated.

  • Despite being the longest numbered highway of any class in Louisiana, spanning 431.88 miles, Louisiana State Route 1 only ranked fifth. However, the high number of drunk driving fatal crashes is concerning: a third of all fatal crashes on the highway involved a driver under the influence of alcohol.
  • US-90 ranked fourth with 50 fatal crashes leading to 52 total fatalities, but the high number of drunk driving crashes is a serious concern: 42 percent of the fatal crashes on this highway involved a driver who was intoxicated.
  • Louisiana State Route 10 had 21 total fatalities, but that came from just 15 crashes – two-thirds of which involved a drunk driver.

These instances of drunk driving fatal crashes are incredibly high, and certainly justify the need to understand why this may occur at such a high rate on these highways.