REPORT: Rural roads more dangerous than congested urban areas
According to the Center for Excellence in Rural Safety at the University of Minnesota, more people die each year in rural roadway accidents than in urban settings. As you might expect, there are indeed more crashes in cities than in the country, but those accidents are less likely to be fatal.
Like numbers? The NHTSA says that 56 percent of the 37,261 traffic deaths in the United States last year occurred on rural roads, though only about 23 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Why? It seems that drivers are more likely to be traveling at high rates of speed in rural areas and those roadways are often not as well engineered as those in the city. Further, drunk driving is more common in rural areas and seat belts are worn less frequently. Finally, it takes emergency workers more time to reach rural accident locations.
Next logical question: What do we do about it? South Carolina – which posted the highest percentage of rural traffic deaths last year – is focusing on rumble strips, grooves and raised patterns to alert drivers they may be leaving the pavement. In Montana, engineers are adding under- and overpasses to allow animals a clear path to cross the roads. Other states are starting new safety campaigns to encourage the use of seat belts. We offer another suggestion: flying cars.
[Source: USA Today]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Roxy 2:51PM (10/07/2009)
I live in SC and know how dangerous these narrow roads are. In the last week I have had two incidents where oncoming drivers came into my lane. Besides coming at me at more than sixty MPH (in a forty-five MPH zone), they were obviously distracted by something. Drivers in SC tend to do their own thing when it comes to driving. They aren't going to be told to buckle up, stop drinking and driving, and they love to speed. The bigger the truck, the braver they are.
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Mike 4:49PM (10/07/2009)
Regardless of the study, I'll take my chances in the rural lanes. It's easier to dodge an oncoming car than it is to dodge a bullet in a drive-by.
sw 5:28PM (10/07/2009)
Yes Mike, we in the cities are all criminals and our favorite pastime is to shoot at each other, just like how everybody in the countryside is an inbred moron.
Polly Prissy Pants 6:14PM (10/07/2009)
If they're only coming at you going 60 mph then you're better than many. I've travelled many two lane blacktops that were posted 70 mph which means people are really doing 75, all of them one false twitch from a massive head-on. I've often wondered how they even allow that to continue as it's no wonder they kill people at an alarming rate on those rural roads.
dal20402 6:26PM (10/07/2009)
I'd be more scared of getting shot in the country, by errant hunters, than in the city. (And I live in "dangerous" Washington DC.)
Rich 8:55PM (10/07/2009)
Polly: this just shows the difference between the US and Europe.
In the UK, all roads outside of built-up areas are 60 mph, unless they have a central reservation, in which case they're 70 mph.
These roads are often only as wide as two cars, which is to say, narrower than half of the equivalent US road.
Add to that they're not normally straight. If they're straight, they follow a Roman road. Otherwise they follow the route the cows took to the river; or some arbitrary delineation of property, resulting in right angles every few hundred meters.
I used to feel safe in the UK driving these roads at between 50 and 70 mph at night with no moon and damp conditions.
In the US, I feel nervous doing 45 mph (the posted limit) during daytime with the baking hot Arizona sun.
haroldashe 8:08AM (10/08/2009)
I, too, live in SC and I agree that our rural roads are among the most dangerous in the nation. Many of them are very narrow, barely wide enough for 2 pickups to pass each other. And there are a LOT of pickups in SC! I also agree about the speed, lack of wearing seatbelts and drunkeness behind the wheel. This is why our insurance rates are so high.
bellered 8:49AM (10/08/2009)
Guess I'm the only one relieved to see that in this one small way, we're still allowing natural selection to cull the herd.
Yes Iam 10:53AM (10/08/2009)
You are so right Roxy. I have driven in LA, DC, Chicago & Boston, and South Carolina has the worst drivers anywhere! Traffic rules are treated as "suggestions". Because it's so bad here, I pay 3 times as much for insurance than I used to pay before we moved here. And I have not had an accident in over 30 years! (and that one was only a fender bender).
Evan 4:08PM (10/07/2009)
I grew up in rural Canada, and I can believe it. Every year between 2 and 4 students from my high school died in car crashes. Drunk driving was common among both teenagers and their parents. But no one does anything because it's not politically correct for the government to say anything bad about rural people, because "farmers feed cities".
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Silly Pickle 4:22PM (10/07/2009)
Geez!! What part of the country you from!? Far east? (Newf/Lab) Or perhaps Sask? 2-3 per year! I hope to God you had about 20,000 kids in that school. I can't count on one hand in 20 years how many kids have died here in DD accidents (though maybe more should - they seem to think it's no biggie)...heck I probably don't even need one finger...yikers.
B. overpasses to allow animals a clear path to cross the roads.
So...who's gonna train all the deer etc to cross at those over/under passes? Do they have deer language signs at the ready? Can deer even read? What about moose? I hear they're slow learners. Maybe someone will put little feed pellets there to entice them to learn to use the crossings...not sure how it's giong to work.
Tom 4:41PM (10/07/2009)
@Silly Pickle
Ah, you forget. They are building these overpasses in Montana, where the intelligence of the wildlife can actually exceed that of the motorists. Seriously though, they'll probably just put up fences along the road nearby the overpasses, leaving the overpass as the last option if the animals really want to get across the road...
MikeofLA 4:09PM (10/07/2009)
We need a massive driver reeducation in this country. Most accidents are caused by people just making stupid mistakes that are easily avoidable.
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Berto 4:17PM (10/07/2009)
So true.
Just yesterday I was on the 5 North just passed Chula Vista when I saw a teenage girl in a 135i convertible texting with one hand and drinking a starbucks coffee with the other. I couldn't believe how stupid, careless and dangerous her behavior was.
Not surprisingly, within two minutes she almost caused an accident with two cars since she was merging into a left lane without even noticing as another driver was merging into the same lane. Luckily the other driver was attentive.
She looked pretty scared and surprised. What did she do next? She picked up her phone and started talking on it. Im guessing the call was along the lines of:
"OMGZZZ!!! I like totally almost crashed hehe. It was like, soo scurry!"
Berto 4:18PM (10/07/2009)
*past
Berto 4:09PM (10/07/2009)
You guys read my mind: Flying cars.
I have said it many times before, I am still waiting for mine.
Seems very logical, I remember living in Western Australia for a while, which has many stretches of rural highway, and reading a story similar to this. The main causes were usually Alcohol, speeding and lack of seat belts. Drag racing in rural highways with one lane each way was also rampant.
I remember that Kangaroos were also a factor, which is why so many cars had my favorite accessory, a 'Roo Bar.
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Beastage 4:54PM (10/07/2009)
I agree man, we were promised flying cars by the year 2000 in the 80s.
fixitfixitstop 9:37AM (10/09/2009)
You will never see flying cars until we all live underground.
Tang 4:12PM (10/07/2009)
As a Minnesota student (and having been out in rural Minnesota) from the state of Michigan, this isn't really a surprise. The drive between school and home (aka rural Wisconsin) at night is rather frightening at times.
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John F.C. Taylor 4:16PM (10/07/2009)
The article was way too short. I'd like to know what percentage of the accidents happened after dark. I'd be willing to bet that a majority of the accidents, regardless of the underlying causes did happen at night.
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