The Deadliest Stretch of Road in Michigan

How do you determine what our state's most deadliest road is? When I first heard the word 'deadliest' my mind saw a road that was either full of potholes, sinkholes, or along some treacherous cliff along one of the Great Lakes.

But no.

When I actually saw pictures of (what is called) Michigan's Deadliest Road, I thought to myself “what?? There's hardly any traffic here! No holes, no cliffs...so what's the deal?”

According to MoneyGeek, our deadliest stretch of road is on Gratiot Avenue in Detroit. Specifically, the 4 ½ mile stretch between Liberal Street and Van Dyke Avenue. Looking at photos, this stretch looks relatively tame. But MoneyGeek put the data together and came up with these facts:

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On this section of Gratiot Avenue, between 2018 and 2020, there were:
16 fatal accidents
18 deaths
3.4 crashes per mile

Gratiot Avenue begins in downtown Detroit and runs approximately 57 miles northeast thru the city, ending just south of Port Huron. It was one of the original avenues that was tracked after the great Detroit fire of 1805.

I got some screen shots of that 4 ½ mile section of Gratiot and put them in the gallery below, along with many photos of the seemingly endless stream of abandoned shops and businesses. I remember my dad driving down Gratiot in the 60s and it just about looked the same as it does now. The lanes are wide enough, there's barely any traffic, so why so many accidents? The one thing that makes sense to me is that people must be running thru red lights and causing accidents. Maybe others are rubbernecking, looking at all the abandoned buildings.

Anyway, you got it - “Michigan's Deadliest Road” is the 4 ½ mile stretch of Gratiot Avenue between Liberal Street and Van Dyke Avenue in Detroit. Take a look at the gallery below which shows many of the avenue's abandoned buildings and a few photos showing what Gratiot Avenue looked like over 100 years ago.

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