One intersection in a car-heavy corridor near West Palm Beach reached 100 crashes for the second consecutive years. It's averaged 90 wrecks for five.
Julius Whigham IIPalm Beach Post
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PALM SPRINGS — Crowded with shopping plazas and neighborhood markets, Forest Hill Boulevard and South Military Trail is one of Palm Beach County’s busiest intersections. For the second year in a row, it had more crashes than any other crossroad, according to county traffic engineering statistics.
The intersection, which straddles the Palm Springs village limits, had a county-high total of 101 wrecks in 2023, one more than its total for 2022.
It has averaged 90 crashes a year over the previous five years, more than any other intersection in the county during that stretch, statistics provided by the county Traffic Division show. The crossroad averages more than 40,000 vehicle trips per day.
Both Forest Hill and Military Trail had a high number of crashes at other intersecting points, with a 17-mile stretch of Military accounting for four of the six highest wreck totals during 2023, county data shows.
Second on the list last year was North Military and Okeechobee Boulevard near West Palm Beach, accounting for 92 crashes. Forest Hill and South State Road 7 near the Mall at Wellington Green finished third with 83.
The county’s numbers do not specify how many of the crashes were fatal or involved injury. Many of them involved only damage to vehicles.
According to Signal Four Analytics, an online traffic safety dashboard that tracks vehicle crashes statewide, crashes at Palm Beach County intersections accounted for 323 serious injuries and 67 deaths last year. The number of fatalities was higher in 2022, at 80, according to the dashboard. There had been 19 deaths at county intersections as of June 13.
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Speeding, distracted drivers, traffic volumes feed Palm Beach County crash totals
The county's data did not include crash rates — the number of crashes per 1 million vehicles — with the traffic division citing an issue with its mapping technology. Crash rates, which factor in the total number of crashes, traffic volume and the number of years of data, can be a more accurate indicator of how likely a driver is to be involved in a traffic accident at a particular location.
Speeding, distracted driving and heavy traffic volumes have frequently been cited as contributing factors to the crashes. According to county data, daily traffic at points just south, east and west of Forest Hill Boulevard and Military Trail averaged about 43,000 vehicles in 2023.
In recent years, Military Trail has been particularly noticeable in terms of number of traffic crashes. Spanning more than 40 miles from Jupiter to Boca Raton and located about midway between Interstate 95 and Florida’s Turnpike, Military Trail is one of the county’s most heavily traveled north-south routes.
Last year, the route's intersecting points at PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens, Okeechobee and Forest Hill Boulevard in suburban West Palm Beach and Lantana Road near Atlantis, accounted for a combined 351 crashes.
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A mix of heavy traffic volume from commercial and retail sites, pedestrian traffic and the presence of older buildings with driveways allowing direct access to the road have been attributed as factors in the high number of crashes along the route.
PGA and North Military Trail in Palm Beach Gardens tied North Alternate A1A and Indiantown in Jupiter for the most intersection crashes in northern Palm Beach County, with each recording 78 crashes, county statistics show.
West Boynton Beach Boulevard and North Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach also had 78 wrecks and was southern Palm Beach County's most crash-prone intersection in 2023.
Most crash-prone intersections, 2023
- 101: South Military Trail and Forest Hill Boulevard, Palm Springs.
- 92: North Military Trail and Okeechobee Boulevard, suburban West Palm Beach.
- 83: South State Road 7 and Forest Hill Boulevard, Wellington.
- 80: Lantana Road and South Military Trail, suburban Lake Worth.
- 78: (tie) North Alternate A1A and Indiantown Road, Jupiter; PGA Boulevard and North Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens; West Boynton Beach Boulevard and North Congress Avenue, Boynton Beach.
- 77: (tie) South Jog Road and Forest Hill Boulevard, Greenacres; Southern Boulevard and Sansburys Way/Lyons Road, suburban West Palm Beach; South Jog Road and Atlantic Avenue, suburban Delray Beach.
- 76: Southern Boulevard and State Road 7, Royal Palm Beach.
- 75: West Atlantic Avenue and northbound Interstate 95, Delray Beach.
- 74: 10th Avenue North and South Congress Avenue, Palm Springs.
- 73: Glades Road and Northwest 15th Avenue/Airport Road, Boca Raton.
- 71: Okeechobee Boulevard and North Haverhill Road, suburban West Palm Beach.
- 69: South State Road 7 and Palmetto Park Road, suburban Boca Raton.
- 68: North Military Trail and Northlake Boulevard, Palm Beach Gardens.
- 67: (tie) Lake Worth Road and South State Road 7, suburban Wellington; South Jog Road and Lake Worth Road, Greenacres.
- 66: 10th Avenue North and South Military Trail, near Greenacres; Southern Boulevard and Military Trail, suburban West Palm Beach; North Congress Avenue and 45th Street, West Palm Beach.
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
