If driving on Southwest Parkway in Wichita Falls raises your stress level, there’s a good reason.

The intersections along that busy thoroughfare through south Wichita Falls were the most dangerous for traffic crashes in 2024, according to information from the Wichita Falls Police Department.

Wichita Falls police worked 87 crashes at intersections along Southwest Parkway during the year.

But that long stretch of road from U.S. Highway 281 on the east to Kell Boulevard on the west is not the only trail of treacherous intersections in town.

Where dangerous intersections are in Wichita Falls

The streets on the list have some of the heaviest traffic in the city, but they were not the only culprits for crashes. Police logged 946 traffic accidents at various intersections both busy and tame across town during that year.

Fatal accidents

Sgt. Brett Keith with the Wichita Falls Police Department said two of those deadly wrecks were the result of drivers failing to yield right-of-way. The one at Southwest Parkway and Mistletoe Drive happened when a pedestrian failed to yield right-of-way to a vehicle and was struck.

He said the best way to avoid wrecks at intersections is to build in enough time to get where you’re going without being in a rush.

“If you’ve got someplace to go, make sure to leave enough time that you don’t have to rush. Second, we tell everybody that when a light turns green to take just a half second to look both ways and make sure nobody’s trying to beat a red light,” he said.

He said WFPD tries to “hammer home” defensive driving.

“Just because you have a green doesn’t always mean that it’s safe," he said.

Keith said the best way for pedestrians to avoid getting hit is to cross streets at designated crossings and obey the crossing signals.

“Wait until you get your walk signal,” he said.

Another tip for pedestrians is to try to make eye contact with drivers.

“Because at least then you know that person is paying attention, and they see you, you see them. Good things always come from that,” Keith said.

Southwest Parkway

The street with the highest number of intersection crashes is not actually a Wichita Falls street. Southwest Parkway is a farm-to-market road maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Because much of the city’s growth in recent years has been in the south part of town, Southwest Parkway has recorded heavier traffic volume, and the highway department has made improvements to the road.

TxDOT spokesperson Adele Lewis-Brauer said the state has an interagency agreement on the thoroughfare.

“We rebuild it. We buy new signals. We install new lighting and cover the old ditches. But the city of Wichita Falls times the lights and maintains center mediums, landscaping on free right turns, and polices it,” she said.

What to do when a traffic light is flashing yellow

Dangerous intersections are not just a Wichita Falls problem.

Each year roughly one–quarter of traffic fatalities and about one–half of all traffic injuries in the U.S. are attributed to intersections, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

In 2022, 1,272 people were killed when someone ran a red light at an intersection.

FHA statistics showed that a high percentage of crashes that occur involve left turns.

Doug Wooster, superintendent of the Wichita Falls Traffic Engineering Department, agrees.

“People just don’t understand that a flashing yellow means you have to yield to the people coming at you,” he said.

The FHA said crashes are dramatically reduced in intersections with circular left turn designs rather than lanes crossing at right angles to each other.

The agency’s latest statistics are from 2022. In that year 12,046 people died in intersection accidents nationwide.