• 07
  • February
    2011

The chance a driver will be in a deadly car accident is influenced by where that driver lives. Generally, rural states have a higher highway death rate than urban states because rural roads are more dangerous than urban roads. These assertions are based on new federal data that looked at the number of traffic fatalities per 100,000 people and the number of highway deaths per 100 million miles driven. The report ranked states according to their highway death rate.

Locations like Washington D.C and Massachusetts ranked among the safest places to drive in the United States and places like Louisiana, Montana, Mississippi and Wyoming were among the most dangerous states to drive. Washington D.C. had the best highway death rate of 4.8 percent and Wyoming had the worst highway death rate at 24.6 percent. Pennsylvania fared slightly better than the national average with a highway death rate of 10.0 percent. The national rate was 11.0 percent.

The notion that rural roads are more dangerous than urban roads remains true in states with low overall death rates. Rural areas in states that have low overall death rates have twice the rate of deaths as urban areas. Rural roads are more dangerous than urban roads because rural roads have higher speed limits, less safety engineering like divided highways and slower access to emergency services.

Some traffic safety advocate groups believe the comparisons are misleading and do not accurately reflect the safety of state roads. One such group is the Governors Highway Safety Association. The group believes the type of legal measures a state has is a better indication of road safety.

Source: USA Today, "Study: Roads are safer in urban areas," Larry Copeland, 1/25/11