Traffic collisions increase along a busy stretch of U.S. 27 in Nicholasville

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) — Thousands of drivers travel a busy stretch of U.S. 27 in Nicholasville every day, and police say the sheer volume of traffic is leading to higher odds of collisions.

The stretch between Brannon Crossing and Kohl’s Drive sees the most traffic collisions. Over the past 12 months, from April 2025 until now, Nicholasville police say there have been 125 collisions, with 23 of those being injury accidents. According to Kentucky State Police crash data, the total was around 100 the year before last.

“This is the, the main thoroughfare to get from Lexington and Nicholasville. People want to talk about it being a main artery. I say it’s the aorta. This is where the most volume of traffic comes through town at any given time,” Officer Sam Wade said.

Rear-end crashes are the most common type of collision. Police say distracted drivers, such as people texting or talking on cell phones, cause most of the accidents rather than drivers running red lights.

“The key factors for those are things like distractions, people following too closely, um, and, and not being aware of what’s going on around them,” Wade said.

At the intersection of Brannon Crossing and U.S. 27 alone, 36 collisions have been reported over the past 12 months, including five injury crashes. Since January of this year, there have been 23 reported collisions in the 1.5-mile stretch from Brannon Crossing to the entrances of Sam’s and Kohl’s.

Wade recommends drivers leave three to four seconds of following distance between their vehicle and the car in front of them. If a vehicle is traveling at the 55 mph speed limit, it takes about 150 feet to stop.

“A lot of them will talk about traffic stopping in front of them. Well, that’s something that’s directly attributed to following distance. How close were you following and did you see that they had stopped?” Wade said.

Good advice to consider for drivers who don’t want to become another collision statistic on this busy stretch of road.