Remember when crash capital of US was just outside Miramar? Let’s take a look back
Pembroke Pines may be the picture of quiet, South Florida suburbia, but it once made national headlines for a much grimmer title — the crash capital of the United States.
In 2001, Pines Boulevard and Flamingo Road was dubbed the nation’s most dangerous intersection in a State Farm Insurance study.
The auto insurer compiled its findings using claim data and the percentage of vehicles it insured in each city in 1999 and 2000, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported in 2001.
It then developed a formula to factor in drivers insured by other companies.
Pembroke Pines topped the report 25 years ago for the highest number of traffic accidents across the U.S., with 357 at Pines and Flamingo.
Trailing the southwest Broward city were two Philadelphia intersections, per CNN: Red Lion Road and Roosevelt Boulevard (331 accidents) and Grant Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard (261).
Pines officials were quick to criticize State Farm’s methodology, which roped crashes that occurred within 500 feet of the intersection, often around the entrances of three shopping malls bordering the area, and minor fender benders into its findings.
“I’m now at Pines and Flamingo,” then-Mayor Alex G. Fekete joked to the Los Angeles Times in 2001. “I’m waiting for an accident to happen. ... Can you fathom that Pembroke Pines has the most dangerous intersection in this country, more dangerous than anything in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago?”
Former Pembroke Pines Police Department Captain Keith Palant said that the intersection was congested, but no more unsafe than other busy roads in Broward.
“We don’t believe that it is unreasonably dangerous in relation to others in the county,” he told the Sun Sentinel in 2001. “I personally travel through that intersection at least two times a day. And on average, I go through there three or four more times a week with my family, and I don’t recall ever seeing an accident in that intersection.”
Despite their skepticism, city officials conceded the roadway could be made safer and started on improvements shortly after.
Approximately $5 million was spent reinforcing Pines and Flamingo by 2006, including “adding another eastbound through lane, lengthening turn lanes, and closing an opening to a McDonald’s restaurant in the median on Pines to prevent left turns into their parking lot,” CBS Miami reported in 2012.
Crashes dropped 64% in the four years following the fixes, the Sun Sentinel reported in 2011.
Roadway changes were followed by the installation of red light cameras in 2011, which ticketed drivers $158 for running a traffic signal.
Today, Pines Boulevard sees an average of over 63,000 drivers per day while Flamingo Road sees over 52,000 commuters daily, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.
This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Remember when crash capital of US was just outside Miramar? Let’s take a look back."
