Fatal car crashes in Flint, MI: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 126 fatal crashes inside Flint, in which 132 people died. The roads with the most were Dort Hwy (State Route 54) with 17 fatal crashes, Saginaw St with 13 and Pierson Rd with 7.

Filing deadline, fault rule, insurance and the court for a crash in Flint: Flint, MI injury guide.

The numbers in this article are NHTSA's. Its Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) is the national record of crashes on public roads that killed someone within 30 days, and this article counts the crashes those records place in the city of Flint; crashes the records code to Flint Township, a separate municipality, are not counted. For 2020 to 2023 it uses NHTSA's Final Files; for 2024, the Annual Report File, NHTSA's first release for that year, which may still be revised. Over the five years that adds up to 126 fatal crashes and, because some crashes killed more than one person, 132 deaths.

Year by year, Flint recorded 27 fatal crashes in 2020, 31 in 2021 and 28 in 2022, then 19 in 2023 and 21 in 2024. Deaths moved the same way, at 29, 33, 28, 20 and 22. The worst year was 2021, and the two most recent years were the lowest of the five. Because the 2024 count can still change in NHTSA's Final File, the five-year totals are the firmer basis for everything else in this article.

Detroit is the only Michigan place with more deaths over these years, 699 against Flint's 132; Grand Rapids, third among the 181 places with fatal crashes on record, had 75, and Lansing 61. Genesee County's records list 273 fatal crashes and 280 deaths, so Flint accounts for 46 percent of the county's crashes and 47 percent of its deaths. Michigan as a whole recorded 5,173 fatal crashes and 5,541 deaths in the same period.

Dort Hwy (State Route 54) is first in the roads table above: 17 fatal crashes that killed 18 people, the most recent in 2024. Saginaw St is second, with 13 crashes and 13 deaths, the latest also in 2024. Between them the two roads hold 30 of the city's 126 fatal crashes, or 24 percent, and the next row falls to Pierson Rd, where 7 fatal crashes killed 8 people.

Welch Blvd follows with 6 fatal crashes, then Pasadena Ave with 5. One interstate appears in the table, and it stands out for severity: I-475's 4 fatal crashes killed 7 people, the most deaths per crash among the ten rows and the fourth-highest death toll in the table. Dupont St also had 4, and Ballenger Hwy, Chevrolet Ave and Stewart Ave close the list with 3 each. The ten rows hold 65 of the city's fatal crashes, 52 percent, and 70 of its 132 deaths, 53 percent. A road's count is background for a claim, not evidence of fault in a particular crash.

Flint's deadliest hours were the overnight ones. Between midnight and 6 a.m. there were 49 fatal crashes, more than in any other six-hour block, and 6 p.m. to midnight added 42, so 91 of the 126, or 72 percent, came in the twelve hours from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Noon to 6 p.m. had 22 and the morning, 6 a.m. to noon, only 13. By light, 70 happened in the dark on a lighted road and 8 in unlighted darkness, 78 in all, against 45 in daylight.

The weekend carried the heaviest load: 27 fatal crashes on Saturdays and 24 on Sundays, 51 in all, or 40 percent, while Tuesday had the fewest, 12. The weather was clear in 98 crashes and rainy or snowy in 14. By location, 56 crashes were at or related to an intersection, and 59 were coded non-junction, meaning they did not happen at an intersection, driveway, ramp or other junction.

How a crash begins shapes the fault questions. In 54 crashes the first harmful event was a collision with another motor vehicle in transport, which in FARS means a vehicle moving or stopped in the roadway; 35 of those were angle crashes, one vehicle running into the side of another, with 10 head-on, 7 rear-end and 2 sideswipes. In the other 72, a pedestrian (25), a utility pole or light support (9), a curb (7), a tree (6) or a cyclist (4) was struck first, or the vehicle rolled over (3), among other events. Sixty-six crashes involved one vehicle, 57 two and 3 three or more.

Drivers were the largest group among Flint's dead, 78 of 132, or 59 percent, and 23 passengers also died. Twenty-six pedestrians were killed, 20 percent of the total, along with 4 bicyclists and 1 person on a personal conveyance, a FARS category covering devices such as wheelchairs and skateboards. Counted by crash instead of by person, a pedestrian, cyclist or other non-motorist was involved in 31 of the 126 crashes, 25 percent.

Motorcycles and mopeds account for 22 of the deaths, exactly one in six, and those riders are already counted among the drivers and passengers above. Angle collisions are the most common crash between vehicles in Flint's records, 35 of 54, and in a rider's claim after one, the dispute is often who had the right of way and whether the other driver could have seen the motorcycle. Pedestrian and cyclist claims raise a related question, whether the driver should have seen the person in time, and with 78 crashes in the dark, lighting is often part of the answer.

Picture an invented case. Shortly after midnight, a driver runs a stop sign in Flint and hits your car at an angle. Your medical bills come to $40,000, and you lose $20,000 in wages beyond what your own coverage pays; every figure here is hypothetical. Because Michigan is a no-fault state, the medical bills and part of the wage loss generally go first to your own personal injury protection (PIP) coverage, whoever caused the crash, up to your policy's limits.

A claim against the other driver is generally possible for what PIP does not pay, here the extra $20,000 of wages, and for pain and suffering when the injury meets the threshold set by Michigan law. If it does, and a jury puts the pain and suffering at $100,000 while finding you 20 percent at fault for speeding, Michigan's modified comparative negligence rule (51% bar) shrinks both parts by your share: $80,000 for pain and suffering and $16,000 of the wages.

At 60 percent, the result splits. Michigan's 51% bar applies to non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, so that part of the claim is barred, but economic damages are reduced by your share of fault rather than barred (MCL 600.2959): 40 percent of the $20,000, or $8,000, would remain. The other driver's policy also caps what is practical; Michigan's minimum liability coverage is 50/100/10, meaning $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for injuries and $10,000 for property damage. Only an attorney can evaluate a real case.

Reporting comes first. Under MCL 257.622, the driver must immediately report a crash that injures or kills anyone, or that damages property to an apparent total of $1,000 or more, at the nearest or most convenient police station or to a police officer. Michigan drivers have no crash report form of their own to file; the investigating officer completes the report, so get the officer's name and the report number before you leave.

With 91 of Flint's fatal crashes between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., the night-time scene is itself evidence, and it changes once the vehicles are towed and daylight returns. Injuries can also surface a day or two later, and an insurer will look closely at any gap before your first treatment. These steps protect both your health and the record:

• Call 911 if anyone is hurt; before you leave, ask the investigating officer for the crash report number.
• If it is safe, photograph the vehicles where they stopped, the signals or signs, and whether the streetlights were working.
• Collect the other driver's name, plate number, insurer and policy number, and contact details for anyone who stopped.
• Have a doctor examine you within a day, even if you feel fine.
• Open your PIP claim with your own insurer promptly; in Michigan's no-fault system, your first benefits come from there.
• Write down your own account of the crash before you speak with the other driver's insurer.

Many crash claims settle, but always against the possibility of a lawsuit. For a crash in Flint, that lawsuit is typically filed in the Genesee County Circuit Court, the trial court for Genesee County, though the right court depends on the facts and an attorney decides where to file. Michigan generally allows three years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit (MCL 600.5805(2)).

The three years are a deadline for filing a lawsuit, not for finishing negotiations. A lawsuit filed after the period has run can be dismissed as too late, even when the other driver's fault is clear, and an insurer knows when that date is near. Some situations change the period, and a wrongful death claim may run on its own deadline, so confirming the exact date is one of the first things to ask an attorney.

Michigan's version of the three main rules is unusual. Its no-fault system sends early medical and wage claims to your own PIP coverage. Its modified comparative negligence rule (51% bar) lets you recover as long as you were not more than 50 percent at fault, with the award reduced by your share; past that line it bars non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, while economic damages are reduced but not barred (MCL 600.2959). And MCL 600.5805(2) generally sets three years to sue.

Move the example to another state and the numbers change. Contributory negligence, still the rule in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, can generally bar recovery for an injured person who was even slightly at fault, so the 20 percent share above could leave nothing there. Deadlines differ too: Tennessee allows one year for most injury claims, against Michigan's three. For a crash at work, Michigan workers' compensation may also apply: notice to your employer is due within 90 days (MCL 418.381), and a claim generally must be filed within two years, through the Michigan Workers' Disability Compensation Agency.

Ask Legal Matters is a personal injury lead-generation service that collects free case review requests from injured people in the United States and shares them with independent attorneys and law firms. It is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Requests may be shared with independent attorneys and legal services partners who handle inquiries in Michigan. Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency, meaning the fee comes out of any recovery, and only an attorney who reviews the facts of a Flint crash can say whether there is a claim. If you or a family member was hurt in a crash in Flint, you can request a free case review.

• What do federal records show about fatal car crashes in Detroit?
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• What should you do after a car accident?
• How do you file a car accident insurance claim?

More on this type of claim: Car accidents: evidence, deadlines and when to ask an attorney.

• Flint, Michigan: local injury guide, court and deadlines
• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation

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