If you have driven in Reno for more than a few weeks, you have a personal list of intersections you avoid like the plague. The intersections that consistently rank as Reno’s worst are not random, but they share a specific set of structural problems from aging infrastructure that never kept up with population growth to asymmetrical lane designs that confuse out-of-towners.
As Reno averages around 20 traffic fatalities per year, and holding only about 10% of Nevada’s population, the city accounts for roughly 20% of the state’s traffic deaths. According to the Nevada Department of Transportation crash dashboard, 49.6% of Reno’s fatal car accidents happen at intersections, compared to just 22.6% on highways.
With these numbers in mind, you are statistically more likely to have a fatal accident at one of Reno’s worst intersections than on any of its freeways and here are the five that consistently top the data, and the specific reasons each one earns its spot.
1. Pyramid Way (NV-445) & McCarran Boulevard
This is widely considered the busiest and most dangerous intersection on the Sparks-Reno border, with more than 150 crashes of varying severity each year. What makes it so bad is the intersection’s asymmetrical design.
Pyramid Way carries three lanes in each direction, McCarran carries only two and where they meet forces drivers to figure out, in seconds, whether their lane continues, drops, or merges. Out-of-town drivers struggle here especially, but locals run into the same problem during peak hours when traffic is dense enough to obscure lane markings. A few of the specific danger factors:
- The asymmetrical lane configuration confuses both tourists heading toward Pyramid Lake and locals trying to get home to Spanish Springs and northern Sparks
- High commuter volume from the rapidly growing northern Sparks and Spanish Springs neighborhoods funnels through here twice a day
- A long history of red-light runners, including a January 2025 fatal crash that killed a 66-year-old Sparks woman after a pickup ran the light and struck her Jeep
- Limited pedestrian infrastructure on a corridor with retail, restaurants, and bus stops on multiple corners
- Heavy truck traffic moving between Pyramid Highway industrial zones and the Sparks commercial district
The Regional Transportation Commission has been working on Pyramid Way improvements for years, but the fundamental geometry of the McCarran intersection remains unchanged. It still ranks as the busiest intersection in Sparks and one of the most crash-prone in the metro area.
2. The Spaghetti Bowl (I-80 / I-580 / US-395 Interchange)
The “Spaghetti Bowl” is technically an interchange rather than a single intersection, but it is impossible to write about Reno’s worst traffic spots without giving it a place near the top of any list. The interchange opened in the early 1970s when the Reno metro area had a population under 115,000. Today, it carries more than 250,000 vehicles per day, making it the busiest interchange in northern Nevada and the largest between Sacramento and Salt Lake City.
The Nevada Department of Transportation has documented that the freeways within the Spaghetti Bowl project area see 25% more crashes than similar roadways in the state. The Wells Interchange on the western side alone saw over 500 severe accidents between 2010 and 2015, according to NDOT’s environmental impact documentation.
Why the Spaghetti Bowl produces so many crashes:
- The eastbound I-80 to southbound I-580 ramp routinely backs up onto the freeway, creating sudden stops at highway speeds
- 50-year-old ramp geometries with short merge zones, short sightlines, and acceleration lanes that were never designed for modern truck and SUV traffic
- Heavy interstate truck traffic moving cargo between California and points east, much of it through the eastbound I-80 to southbound I-580 transition that is the worst chokepoint
- Lake Tahoe and Reno airport tourism traffic mixing with through-commercial traffic
- Construction churn from the ongoing Spaghetti Bowl reconstruction project, a 20-year, multi-phase NDOT effort that began in 2020 and will continue rebuilding ramps, bridges, and lane configurations through the late 2030s
The reconstruction will eventually fix many of the structural problems but until it does, drivers should expect this stretch of I-80 and I-580 to remain one of the most crash-prone corridors in northern Nevada.
3. Mill Street & Kietzke Lane
If the Spaghetti Bowl is Reno’s freeway choke point, Mill and Kietzke is its surface street equivalent. The intersection sits at the heart of one of the city’s busiest service corridors, with the Reno-Tahoe International Airport access route to the east, Renown Regional Medical Center just to the north, the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino a short distance east on Mill, and a dense mix of restaurants, hotels, and businesses on every corner.
It is functionally a junction point for almost every kind of Reno traffic and, as a result, this intersection is one of the most actively reworked intersections in the city. The RTC’s Mill Street Capacity and Safety Project has been rebuilding the corridor through 2026, including widening, signal changes, and pedestrian improvements. Until completion, the construction itself adds another layer of risk to an already overloaded intersection.
The crash history backs this up:
- A July 2024 injury collision at this exact intersection sent multiple people to the hospital
- A May 2020 hit-and-run crash where the at-fault driver and passenger fled on foot after a head-on collision crossing the center line
- An April 2022 hit-and-run involving a pedestrian
- Frequent rideshare and airport-bound vehicle stops in lanes near the intersection
- High pedestrian volume from hotels, restaurants, and the medical campus to the north
If you have been hurt in a crash at this intersection, the rules under Nevada’s car accident laws and Nevada’s comparative negligence framework shape what kind of recovery is possible.
4. Plumb Lane & Kietzke Lane
Roughly a mile south of Mill and Kietzke, Plumb and Kietzke is another Reno corridor where commuter, retail, and medical traffic converge. The intersection sits in the heart of midtown Reno, surrounded by shopping plazas, restaurants, the Reno-Tahoe Airport access from the south, the Atlantis Casino Resort on the western side of the corridor, and a long string of medical and commercial buildings.
What makes it dangerous is the combination of high traffic volume, the way Kietzke functions as a parallel artery to South Virginia (the main Reno commercial corridor), and the volume of left-turn movements at the signal. Drivers are constantly shifting between Kietzke and South Virginia, looking for whichever route is moving better, which produces sudden lane changes and unpredictable turning movements.
A few other specific factors that show up at this intersection:
- A documented history of DUI-related crashes, including an April 2025 crash that sent two people to the hospital
- A high concentration of left-turn movements between commercial properties on all four corners
- Heavy late-night traffic from the Atlantis and Peppermill resort corridors just to the west
- Pedestrian activity from the surrounding hotels, dining, and medical offices
- Limited signal timing flexibility on a corridor that handles both rush-hour commuter volume and event-driven traffic from the Reno-Sparks Convention Center
Plumb and Kietzke does not always make official “most dangerous” rankings, but it is consistently named by Reno locals as one of the most accident-prone corners in midtown.
5. South Virginia Street (US-395 BUS) & Moana Lane
South Virginia Street is the busiest and most dangerous arterial highway in Reno. Between 2016 and 2020, this corridor recorded more than 1,500 accidents, including 12 fatal crashes and nearly 700 injury crashes. The Moana Lane intersection sits in the middle of the highest-conflict section of the corridor, where Reno’s main commercial spine meets one of its busiest east-west connectors.
What makes the Moana intersection so dangerous is what surrounds it:
- The Atlantis Casino Resort sits about a quarter mile north, generating constant tourist and event traffic
- The Peppermill Resort Casino is just south, doing the same
- Moana Lane carries east-west commuter traffic between southwest Reno residential neighborhoods and the I-580 freeway access
- South Virginia carries the bulk of the corridor’s casino, retail, and dining traffic, much of it from out-of-town drivers unfamiliar with the road
- The intersection sees a mix of vehicle types that includes hotel shuttles, rideshares, delivery vehicles, and tour buses all making frequent turns into and out of resort properties
- Late-night impaired driving is a documented factor in casino corridor crashes
The corridor as a whole is the kind of road that NDOT crash data has been flagging for years. The Moana intersection sits at the worst point on the worst arterial.
What to Do If You Are Hurt at One of These Intersections
If you were injured in a crash at any of Reno’s worst intersections, a few things to keep in mind. Reno-area accidents often involve more than one potentially responsible party: another driver, a city or state agency responsible for road or signal design, a casino property owner whose negligent setup contributed (parking lot exits, valets, blocked sightlines), a rideshare or trucking company, or even a construction contractor working an active project. Sorting out who is responsible determines both whether the case is worth pursuing and how much it might recover.
Practical steps that protect you whether or not you decide to file a claim:
- Get medical attention even if you feel okay, because soft tissue and head injuries often surface a day or two later
- Photograph the scene, vehicles, lane markings, signage, signals, and skid marks
- Get the names and contact information of any witnesses, including pedestrians, transit riders, or business employees who saw what happened
- Report the crash to Reno or Sparks Police if it involved injury or significant damage, and request the case number
- Note exactly where in the intersection your vehicle was and which direction you were going, because vague crash descriptions hurt cases later
- Avoid posting about the accident on social media.
- Be aware that under Nevada’s two-year personal injury statute of limitations, you have a limited window to act, and government claims have even shorter notice deadlines
If the case involves a fatality, separate rules apply under Nevada’s wrongful death framework.
Whatever You Do, WCTL Say “Please Don’t Speed in Reno”
If something does go wrong at one of these intersections, contact West Coast Trial Lawyers today for a free consultation. With over 25 years of experience, our Reno-area team is available to walk through what happened and what the path forward could look like. On top of it all, we operate under a contingency fee basis, meaning you do not us anything unless we win your case.
Reach us at (213) 927-3700 or send a message online when you are ready.
