The worst place to drive in Columbus isn't an intersection at all. It's the spot where I-185 meets Macon Road, where police wrote up 535 crashes from 2021 through 2025. That's about two crashes a week, every week, for five years.

Columbus Times went through five years of crash reports in the Georgia Department of Transportation's public crash database to find out where Columbus drivers crash most. Here's what the numbers show.

The big picture

From 2021 through 2025, Muscogee County had:

• 33,578 crashes, about 18 a day
• 10,828 people injured
• 128 people killed in 124 fatal crashes, about one death every two weeks

There's some good news: crashes are going down. The county had 7,629 crashes in 2021 and 6,170 in 2024, a drop of about 19%.

The 10 intersections with the most crashes

Just missing the list: Manchester Expressway & University Avenue (124), Victory Drive & Benning Drive (122), Buena Vista Road & Floyd Road (117), Whittlesey Boulevard & Moon Road (116), and Veterans Parkway & Commercial Drive (112).

No. 1: Manchester Expressway & Armour Road

311 crashes. 70 people hurt. More than one crash a week happens where Armour Road crosses Manchester Expressway, the most of any intersection in the county.

No. 2: Bradley Park Drive & Whittlesey Road

251 crashes. 53 people hurt. Bradley Park Drive shows up twice in the top 10. Its crossing at Whitesville Road is No. 9.

No. 3: Veterans Parkway & Double Churches Road

226 crashes. 55 people hurt. It's the worst of five Veterans Parkway intersections in the top 10.

Veterans Parkway: Half the list

Half of the 10 worst intersections are on Veterans Parkway: Double Churches, Whitesville, Adams Farm, 13th Street and Manchester Expressway. Veterans also had more crashes than any other road in the county: 2,568 in five years.

The interchanges

Interstate ramps work differently from regular intersections, so we ranked them separately. All three of the worst are on I-185:

I-185 & Macon Road had more crashes than any other spot in the county. It had 72% more than the No. 1 intersection.

The busiest crash spots aren't where people die

Here's the surprise in the data: none of the four places with the most crashes (I-185 & Macon, Manchester & Armour, Bradley Park & Whittlesey Road, and Veterans & Double Churches) had a single fatal crash in five years. Busy intersections produce lots of fender benders, but traffic there moves slowly.

Deadly crashes happen where cars move fast. These roads had the most fatal crashes from 2021 through 2025:

Macon Road had the most fatal crashes of any road in the county, twice as many as I-185, even though I-185 had more crashes overall.

How to stay safe at these spots

• Leave room. Most crashes at busy intersections are rear-end crashes in stop-and-go traffic. Keep a few seconds between you and the car ahead.
• Wait for the gap on left turns. Don't rush a turn across oncoming traffic on a yellow light.
• Put the phone down, especially in heavy traffic on Veterans, Manchester and Bradley Park.
• On Macon Road and Victory Drive, slow down. Those roads had the most fatal crashes.
• Watch for people walking, especially at night and away from crosswalks.

How we did this

We used GDOT's public Crash Data Dashboard, which collects crash reports filed by police. We looked at Muscogee County crashes from 2021 through 2025. For each intersection, we added up crashes reported on either road with the other listed as the nearest cross street. Officers don't always spell road names the same way. Where we found two spellings, such as "Adams Farm Drive" and "Adams Farm Road," we added both. Some reports may use other names, so the real totals may be higher. The 2025 numbers may not include every crash report yet. The data covers Muscogee County only, not Phenix City or Harris County.

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