A Northern Illinois Highway Named 4th Deadliest Road In The US

If you've driven this road, you probably already knew how dangerous it can be.

Everyone thinks they want an interesting drive to wherever they're going. A little scenery, maybe some excitement, something to break up the monotony. But for drivers on one particular Illinois road, “interesting” can and does turn deadly.

A new ranking from FLBR Motorsport puts I-94 through Cook County at number-four on its list of the deadliest highway-and-county combinations in America, with 52 fatal crashes recorded during the three-year study period. The ranking was compiled using fatal-crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

A Coworker Was Surprised At The Number-Four Ranking Of I-94 Because He Thinks It Should Be Higher

And if you're wondering which roads managed to beat our Chicago-area stretch of I-94, here they are:

#1: I-15: San Bernardino County, California: 80 fatal crashes
#2: I-10, Maricopa County, Arizona: 57 fatal crashes
#3: I-10, Riverside County, California: 54 fatal crashes

So I-94's 52 fatal crashes put it only two behind Riverside County's I-10 and five behind second-place Maricopa County's I-10.

And unfortunately, I-94 isn't Illinois' only appearance on the wrong kind of list. Five Illinois highway-and-county combinations made the study's national Top 100, all of them in Cook County.

I-57 came in tied for 41st with 26 fatal crashes, I-290 was tied for 53rd with 24, and I-294 and I-90 were tied for 89th with 21 apiece.

These Rankings Aren't Just Vague Ideas Of Dangerous Roads

FLBR Motorsport specifically counted fatal crashes occurring on particular highways within particular counties over a three-year period. That makes I-94's fourth-place finish a pretty sobering statistic.

There's also the good news that traffic deaths are actually declining nationwide.

An estimated 36,640 people died in US crashes in 2025, down 6.7% from 2024, and preliminary numbers show another decline during the first three months of 2026.

Still, the next time you're cruising along I-94, maybe leave the “interesting” part to the radio. Getting where you're going safely is plenty interesting enough.