Study Shows High Traffic Fatality Rate For Tennessee

Image Credit: Jaro Nemcok / CC

The Center Square [By Kim Jarrett] –

Tennessee ranks 12th in an analysis of the United state’s highway system, but received low marks for its high fatality rate in the Reason Foundation’s annual Highway Report.

The Volunteer State ranks 47th for its urban fatality rate, which measures traffic deaths on some of the most traveled roads. The report places the state 42nd in fatalities on local roads and minor arterials. Tennessee ranks 20th for its traffic deaths on rural roads.

“Tennessee has a problem with fatality rates, I really can’t sugarcoat it,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, senior managing director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, in an interview with The Center Square. “Anytime we see a fatality rate in the bottom 10, and Tennessee’s got two of them, that’s a bit of a red flag in our book.”

Feigenbaum said the state has two challenges. One is roadway design, which includes factors like curves and narrow lanes. The second is enforcement.

“Is there too much drunk driving? Is there too much distracted driving?” Feigenbaum said. “Certainly that’s not just a challenge for the DOT but also for state police agencies.”

The state ranked 36th in the urban congestion category, based mainly on traffic woes in the city’s four largest cities.

“Memphis has them, particularly the bridges approaching the state line with Arkansas,” Feigenbaum said.

“Chattanooga has it, particularly I-24 is a big problem. Nashville has it on on multiple roads, owing to the way that interstate system was deisigned and Knoxville actually has it on a portion of I-75 and I-40 that run concurrently that’s actually got the most traffic of any interstate in the country.”

The report uses 2023 funding information from the Federal Highway Administration, which is the most recent data available, according to Feigenbaum. Tennessee ranks 17th for its maintenance, capital and bridge disburesements in the report. The state ranked 2nd for “other disbursements,” which include law enforcement funding, bonds and interest payments.

“Tennessee does not bond, which is very unusual,” Feigenbaum said. “Most states bond so that’s a revenue challenge because when they’re doing a big project, they need to have that money up front.”

A report presented to the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in February shows that transportation is the state’s largest infrastructure need.

Transportation projects are besieged by rising costs and flat user-fee revenues used to fund them. Since 2019, inflation has led to a 100% increase in lead pipe costs and an 80% increase in guardrail costs, Natalie Krzysztof, deputy commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, told a House Finance, Ways and Means Committee in February.

Gov. Bill Lee included a one-time $425 million investment in transportation projects in his fiscal year 2027 budget, following a $1 billion investment in fiscal year 2026.