The Most Dangerous Intersections in Tempe

How Intersection Crashes Happen in Tempe

Most serious car accidents in Tempe happen at or near intersections. Every signal cycle sends left-turning drivers across oncoming lanes. Every stale yellow tempts someone to push through. Paths cross by design, and one bad decision puts two vehicles in the same space.

Tempe adds layers that most cities do not have. Valley Metro light rail runs along Apache Boulevard and Mill Avenue, so left turns cross active train tracks. The ASU Tempe campus, one of the largest university campuses in the country, floods nearby corners with foot, bike, and scooter traffic. Event crowds from Tempe Town Lake and Mountain America Stadium surge through the same corridors at night.

The scale of the problem shows up in state data. The ADOT Motor Vehicle Crash Facts report recorded 121,107 crashes and 1,228 traffic deaths across Arizona in 2024. A large share of urban crashes statewide occur where major streets meet.

This guide covers the Tempe intersections with the worst reputations, the crash types they produce, and how fault gets proven afterward. If you were hurt at one of them, we can connect you with a Tempe car accident lawyer for a free case review. Call (623) 400-8417 between 9 AM and 9 PM, any day of the week.

Nine Known Problem Intersections in Tempe

Local reporting and safety research flag the same Tempe intersections year after year. Crash counts shift annually, so this list explains why each location keeps producing collisions rather than quoting numbers. The pattern matters more than any single statistic.

McClintock Drive appears four times below, and that is no coincidence. It runs the length of the city and crosses every major east-west arterial, collecting commuter, student, and freeway traffic along the way. Rural Road, Baseline Road, and Apache Boulevard repeat for similar reasons.

Rural Road & University Drive

This intersection sits on the eastern edge of the ASU Tempe campus. Thousands of students cross on foot, on bikes, and on scooters between classes. Drivers turning left face oncoming traffic plus crosswalks that never fully clear. Both roads carry heavy commuter volume, so a rushed turn or a moment of hesitation ends in a collision.

Rideshare pickups add stopped cars in through lanes at unpredictable spots. Football Saturdays and weekend nights multiply every one of these conflicts.

McClintock Drive & Apache Boulevard

Valley Metro light rail runs down the middle of Apache Boulevard, and the tracks change how this intersection works. Left turns cross oncoming traffic and an active rail line at the same time. Drivers unfamiliar with the signal phasing misjudge train timing or stop where they should not.

Dense student housing lines Apache Boulevard, which keeps pedestrians and cyclists in the crosswalks at all hours. A driver watching for a train can miss a person, and a driver watching for people can miss the train.

McClintock Drive & Rio Salado Parkway

This intersection funnels traffic between Tempe Marketplace, the Loop 202 ramps, and the Tempe Town Lake event district. Concert and festival crowds push through it after dark, often on unfamiliar routes. Drivers hunting for shopping center driveways brake without warning, and rear-end impacts follow.

Freeway traffic entering McClintock Drive still carries freeway speed. The gap between that speed and stop-and-go retail traffic is where collisions happen.

McClintock Drive & Southern Avenue

Two high-volume commuter arterials meet here in central Tempe. Long signal cycles tempt drivers to run stale yellows, and red-light running produces broadside impacts at speed. Traffic moves faster here than on the streets near campus.

Rush hour backups on both roads also set up chain-reaction rear-end collisions. A driver checking a phone in slowing traffic has almost no margin.

Baseline Road & Mill Avenue

Traffic entering and leaving US-60 stacks up near this corner. Drivers merge, change lanes, and fight for turn bays within a short stretch of Baseline Road. Retail and restaurant driveways sit close to the intersection, adding mid-block turning conflicts.

The mix of freeway-minded drivers and surface street congestion catches people off guard. Sudden stops and sideswipe lane changes are the common failure here.

Baseline Road & Kyrene Road

This south Tempe intersection carries commuters moving among Tempe, Chandler, and the I-10 corridor. Wide multi-lane approaches encourage speed between signals. Left-turn bays overflow during rush hour, and impatient drivers accept gaps that are not really there.

School and neighborhood traffic mixes in during mornings and afternoons. The result is a full-speed arterial crossing with local traffic threaded through it.

Broadway Road & McClintock Drive

Central Tempe commuters, ASU traffic, and delivery vehicles all cross here through the day. Strip-mall driveways near the corner produce cars entering and exiting mid-block, close to the signal queue. Drivers looking at phones drift into stopped traffic at the light.

Evening peaks bring frequent left-turn crashes as westbound drivers turn against sun glare. Visibility problems and heavy volume make this a reliable trouble spot.

Priest Drive & Broadway Road

Priest Drive links I-10, the airport area, and the industrial and office parks of west Tempe. Commercial trucks share these lanes with commuters, and heavy vehicles need far longer stopping distances. That combination produces truck accidents and high-speed rear-end impacts.

East-west sun glare on Broadway Road washes out signal visibility at dawn and dusk. Drivers coming off the freeway are often still moving too fast for a surface intersection.

Apache Boulevard & Price Road

This intersection sits at the eastern edge of Tempe, where Apache Boulevard meets the Loop 101 corridor. Drivers leaving the freeway arrive carrying freeway habits and freeway speed. The light rail line along Apache Boulevard adds train crossings and restricted turn movements.

Traffic bound for Mesa and the ASU area converges here through most of the day. The mix of ramp traffic, rail, and local turns leaves little room for error.

Common Crash Types at Tempe Intersections

Left-turn and red-light crashes produce side impacts, the most dangerous crash geometry for the people inside. A car door offers far less protection than the front or rear structure of a vehicle. Serious injuries follow even at moderate speeds. Our page on T-bone accidents in Tempe covers these cases in detail.

Rear-end collisions are the most common intersection crash. They happen when one driver brakes for a yellow and the driver behind does not react in time. Fault usually lands on the trailing driver, though insurers still fight over injuries. Our Tempe rear-end accident lawyer page explains how those claims work.

Intersections are also where vehicles meet people. Crosswalk crashes injure pedestrians around the campus corridors, and left-turning drivers strike motorcyclists they claim they never saw. Riders and walkers absorb the full force of these impacts with no metal around them.

Night and weekend crashes add an impairment layer. Drivers leaving the Mill Avenue District after midnight run lights, misjudge turns, and sometimes flee the scene afterward. Intersection cameras and witnesses matter even more in those cases, because the first job is identifying the driver at all.

What to Do After an Intersection Crash

Call 911 and stay at the scene. Arizona law requires every driver in a crash to stop, exchange information, and help anyone who is hurt (A.R.S. § 28-663). Photograph the vehicles, the signal heads, the lane markings, and the final resting positions before anything moves. Get names and phone numbers from witnesses, because signal disputes turn on their accounts.

See a doctor within 24 hours even if you feel fine, since some crash injuries surface days later. Then request your Tempe police crash report. Most reports are available online through BuyCrash once you have the report number (GO#) and the crash date. Our step-by-step guide on what to do after a car accident in Tempe walks through the full process.

Watch what you say at the scene and in the days that follow. Do not argue about the light with the other driver, and do not guess at answers for an insurance adjuster. A recorded statement given in the first week often becomes the defense exhibit months later. Report the crash to your own insurer, then let a lawyer handle the rest of the talking.

How Fault Is Proven at an Intersection

Intersection cases often come down to who had the green light, and both drivers usually claim it. Evidence settles the dispute. Traffic cameras, business security video, independent witnesses, and the damage pattern on each vehicle all tell part of the story. The location of debris and the angle of impact often reveal which car entered first.

Signal timing records add another layer. The city can produce data showing how the lights cycled at the moment of the crash. Many newer vehicles also store speed and braking data in an event data recorder. An attorney can send preservation letters before video is overwritten and request the timing data before it is archived.

Timing controls every one of these sources. Businesses overwrite security video on short cycles, sometimes within days. Witnesses to a campus-area crash may be students who leave Tempe at the end of the semester. The earlier the investigation starts, the more of the intersection story survives.

Arizona applies pure comparative fault under A.R.S. § 12-2505. If you were 20 percent at fault for entering on a late yellow, you can still recover 80 percent of your damages. Insurers use this rule to shift blame onto victims, which is one reason legal help matters most in intersection cases.

Talk to a Tempe Car Accident Attorney

You do not have to sort out signal disputes, camera requests, and adjuster calls on your own. We connect intersection crash victims with local attorneys who handle these cases every week. The consultation is free, and car accident lawyers typically charge no fee unless they win.

Arizona gives you two years from the crash date to file an injury lawsuit under A.R.S. § 12-542. Camera footage disappears far sooner than that. Call (623) 400-8417 between 9 AM and 9 PM, seven days a week, and get answers before the evidence is gone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• ADOT Arizona Motor Vehicle Crash Facts
• Arizona Revised Statutes
• Tempe Police public records (crash reports)