Police reports name Highland and President avenues in Fall River in 89 crashes over three years, more than any other South Coast intersection
Wareham's Cranberry Highway had more injury crashes than any other road in a single South Coast community, 181 in three years, and Seekonk's Fall River Avenue had the most crashes, 752.
SOUTH COAST Police reports name the corner of Highland Avenue and President Avenue in Fall River in 89 crashes from 2023 through 2025, more than any other intersection in the 19 South Coast communities, and 39 of those crashes involved an injury, state crash records show. The count went from 29 in 2023 and 25 in 2024 to 35 in 2025.
Police listed stop signs as the traffic control in 79 of the 89 crashes there. They coded 68 of the 89 as angle collisions and seven as rear-end or front-to-rear crashes. Two of the crashes left someone with a suspected serious injury, and no one was killed. The state's file lists both streets as city roads.
Next is Route 6 in Swansea, where Market Street and James Reynolds Road, both Route 136, cross it, with 79 crashes and 31 injury crashes. Counting instead every crash that MassDOT's mapping places within 150 feet of each junction, whatever streets the report names, Swansea leads, 124 crashes to Fall River's 106, while Fall River had more injury crashes, 43 to Swansea's 39.
Taunton holds seven of the 16 intersections with 37 or more crashes. Dean Street (Route 44) at Longmeadow Road had 62 crashes, most of them rear-end or sideswipe crashes, and seven injury crashes. Two corners on Washington Street drew more injuries: East Britannia Street, with 52 crashes and 18 injury crashes, and Jackson Street, with 45 and 19.
New Bedford's leader is Coggeshall Street at North Front Street, 43 crashes and 14 injury crashes. Somerset's is Route 6 at Lees River Avenue, 42 and 16. Fairhaven's Alden Road and Bridge Street had 39 crashes, 27 of them coded as rear-end or front-to-rear crashes, and five injury crashes.
The intersections with the most crashes
| Intersection | Community | Crashes | Injury crashes | Serious or fatal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highland Avenue and President Avenue | Fall River | 89 | 39 | 2 |
| Route 6 at Market Street and James Reynolds Road | Swansea | 79 | 31 | 3 |
| Dean Street (Route 44) and Longmeadow Road | Taunton | 62 | 7 | 0 |
| East Britannia Street and Washington Street | Taunton | 52 | 18 | 1 |
| Bay Street and Industrial Park Road | Taunton | 48 | 5 | 0 |
| Plymouth Avenue and Rodman Street | Fall River | 46 | 10 | 0 |
| Jackson Street and Washington Street | Taunton | 45 | 19 | 1 |
| School Street and Winter Street | Taunton | 44 | 15 | 0 |
| County Street and Hart Street | Taunton | 44 | 14 | 2 |
| Coggeshall Street and North Front Street | New Bedford | 43 | 14 | 1 |
| Route 6 and Lees River Avenue | Somerset | 42 | 16 | 0 |
| Winthrop Street (Route 44) and Anawan Street (Route 118) | Rehoboth | 42 | 3 | 0 |
| Route 6 and Swansea Mall Drive | Swansea | 42 | 15 | 3 |
| Alden Road and Bridge Street | Fairhaven | 39 | 5 | 0 |
| Davol Street and President Avenue | Fall River | 37 | 15 | 0 |
| Spring Street and Summer Street | Taunton | 37 | 13 | 1 |
The top corner in the other communities
- Dartmouth: Hathaway Road and State Road, 35 crashes, 11 injury crashes.
- Seekonk: Fall River Avenue and Taunton Avenue, 35 crashes, eight injury crashes.
- Wareham: Cranberry Highway and Depot Street, 32 crashes, 11 injury crashes.
- Rochester: Braley Hill Road and North Avenue, 19 crashes, seven injury crashes, four of them with a suspected serious injury.
- Lakeville: Bedford Street and Rhode Island Road, 19 crashes, seven injury crashes, one of them fatal.
- Freetown: Chace Road and Gurney Road, 17 crashes, eight injury crashes.
- Acushnet: Main Street and South Main Street, 17 crashes, six injury crashes.
- Marion: Front Street at the Interstate 195 eastbound ramp, 17 crashes, two injury crashes.
- Westport: Old County Road and Route 88, 14 crashes, six injury crashes.
- Mattapoisett: County Road and North Street, 10 crashes, one injury crash.
- Berkley: Church Street and Myricks Street, 10 crashes, three injury crashes.
- Dighton: Center Street and Somerset Avenue, eight crashes, two injury crashes.
The roads with the most crashes
By road, Fall River Avenue in Seekonk, which carries Route 6, had the most crashes within one community, 752, followed by Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford with 699 and County Street in Taunton with 637. Cranberry Highway in Wareham had fewer crashes, 515, but more injury crashes than any of them, 181, and the most crashes with a suspected serious or fatal injury, 20.
Dartmouth's State Road had 136 injury crashes in 398. In New Bedford, County Street had 22 crashes involving a pedestrian and Acushnet Avenue had 16. All 19 communities together had 41,745 crashes in the three years, 9,416 with an injury.
SC360 reported on Oct. 30 that 42 people died in crashes in the same 19 communities in 2025, the most since 2020.
How we counted
The counts come from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's crash files for 2023, 2024 and 2025, read Oct. 31. A crash counts at an intersection when the police report's roadway field names both streets. About three in 10 reports name two or more streets, so crashes reported by one street name or a route number are left out and the true totals can be higher. Departments fill in that field differently, which can affect how towns compare. Swansea's Market Street and James Reynolds Road meet Route 6 at one junction and are counted together. The 150-foot comparison counts every crash mapped within 150 feet of the point where each corner's crashes cluster.
Road totals use the road on which MassDOT's mapping places each crash and are not adjusted for a road's length or traffic. MassDOT marks its 2023 records closed and its 2024 and 2025 records open, so the later counts can still change. An injury crash is one in which police reported anyone killed or hurt, possible injuries included.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every figure comes from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's public crash files for 2023, 2024 and 2025, which list each crash police reported. We read them on Oct. 31. The intersection counts, injury counts, road totals and yearly totals are our arithmetic from those files for the 19 communities: Acushnet, Berkley, Dartmouth, Dighton, Fairhaven, Fall River, Freetown, Lakeville, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, Rehoboth, Rochester, Seekonk, Somerset, Swansea, Taunton, Wareham and Westport. We rechecked the top three intersections and the Seekonk road total with separate queries to the state's service, and the counts matched. The 150-foot comparison in Swansea and Fall River counts every crash the state maps within 150 feet of the point where each corner's named crashes cluster. No person is named. We checked each date against a calendar.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (5)
- MassDOT crash open data: 2023 crash fileOne row per police reported crash; 14,160 crashes in the 19 South Coast communities, all marked Closed. Read Oct. 31, 2026.
- MassDOT crash open data: 2024 crash fileOne row per police reported crash; 13,887 crashes in the 19 communities, marked Open. Read Oct. 31, 2026.
- MassDOT crash open data: 2025 crash fileOne row per police reported crash; 13,698 crashes in the 19 communities, marked Open. Fields used: town, roadway, mapped street, injury severity, injuries, manner of collision, traffic control, jurisdiction, pedestrian involvement, record status. Read Oct. 31, 2026.
- MassDOT crash open data: 2026 crash fileOne row per police reported crash, records through Oct. 30, 2026; used only for the count so far this year at Highland Avenue and President Avenue. Read Oct. 31, 2026.
- South Coast 360: South Coast road deaths rose to 42 in 2025Our Oct. 30, 2026 story on traffic deaths in the same 19 communities, linked for readers.