Greenville ranked fifth in reported car crashes among all North Carolina cities with populations topping 10,000 in the two most recent years statistics are available.
The only cities that outranked Greenville were Greensboro, Lumberton, Charlotte and Asheville, according to crash data from the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles.
Kristen Hunter, public information officer for the Greenville Police Department, said the city’s rapid population growth is one factor in its number of car accidents, but the city’s engineering division has been part of a task force to try to drive those numbers down.
In 2023, the North Carolina DMV reported 12,938 car crashes, 32 of them fatal, and 3,282 non-fatal injury crashes. In that same year, drivers experienced 3,309 car crashes in Greenville. Of that number, 10 were fatal, while over 1,000 resulted in injuries.
That same year, 41 pedestrian accidents happened in Greenville, with five resulting in fatalities. In Winterville, the next town over, only three pedestrian accidents and one fatality were reported that year.
Hunter said that, on average, Greenville Police respond to about 400 accidents a month. Areas in Greenville that are common for accidents are on Greenville Boulevard. The intersection of Arlington Boulevard and Fire Tower Road is the highest location for crashes in Greenville.
As for pedestrians, most pedestrian accidents happen near the East Carolina University campus on 10th Street, Hunter said. Improvements have been made in recent years with the addition of crosswalk lights and pedestrian signals, but “pedestrians have to use those in order for them to be effective,” Hunter said, adding that pedestrians should cross streets only on crosswalks and use the signals. Pedestrians should also make eye contact with drivers before crossing the road to ensure safety.
Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, experienced far fewer pedestrian accidents than Greenville, even though it is also a college town and has far more students. In 2023, according to data from the North Carolina DMV, Chapel Hill had 23 pedestrian crashes. Of those 23, all resulted in injury, and one resulted in death. According to data from the North Carolina 2023 Traffic Crash Facts, Chapel Hill had a total of 3,845 crashes.