News

August 26, 2004
Deadliest states for driving
'Country' and 'western' killer combination behind the wheel – rural states have higher death rates

By Peter Valdes-Dapena
CNN/Money staff writer

NEW YORK—Widely dispersed populations connected by narrow two-lane highways are a recipe for dangerous driving, according to a simple look at state-by-state traffic fatality counts as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Comparing the number of traffic deaths in each state to its population reveals that some states have death rates – traffic deaths per 100,000 population – that are more than double the national average. Other states, mostly in the urban Northeast, have death rates far below the national average.

"More rural states tend to have higher fatalities," said Susan Ferguson, senior vice president for research with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a group that researches traffic safety trends.

Those gorgeous, winding two-lane roads that make a drive in the country so appealing are a big part of the reason. Big, boring, crowded interstates are much safer, it seems.

Drivers don't tend to see it that way, though. According to a new survey commissioned The Drive for Live Initiative, a coalition of automotive safety and law enforement groups, 35 percent of drivers feel most at risk when driving on city streets and 32 percent feel most at risk when driving on limited access interstate highways.

Half as many, 16 percent, feel at most risk when driving on two-lane rural roads, according the survey.

Speed limits tend to be higher in rural areas, especially in Western states, a factor that also contributes to higher fatality rates, said Ferguson.

"People in rural areas tend not to wear their belts as often and have older vehicles," said Ferguson.

In Mississippi, the state with the second highest traffic fatality rate, 80 percent of motorists killed in crashes are unbelted, said Amy Hornbeck, a spokeswoman for that state's department of transportation.

Both Wyoming, the state with the highest traffic death rate, and Mississippi have secondary, rather than primary, seatbelt laws. Primary seatbelt law would allow police to stop and ticket a driver simply for not wearing a seatbelt. With secondary seatbelt laws, police can only ticket an unbelted driver after stopping them for another infraction first. Representatives of the departments of transportation in both states cited that as a factor adding to high death rates.

"Our biggest number of fatalities involve single-vehicle rollovers where occupants are ejected from the vehicle," said Cliff Reuer, a traffic and safety engineer for South Dakota's department of transportation. "If we could get our people to wear seat belts more often, it would cut the death rate a lot."

New Mexico, another top state for traffic deaths per capita, claims a 90 percent rate of seatbelt use among its drivers, however.

Wyoming is the nation's least populous state and one of the largest by land area. In addition to its low population density, Wyoming also has maximum highway speed limits of 75 miles per hour, among the highest of any state.

The state is working on building more four lane highways, said Sleeter Dover, director of the Wyoming Department of Transportation. Many of the states two-lane highways run through mountainous terrain with unpredictable weather, said Dover.

Those driving through the state from other parts of the country are also a frequent cause of crashes, he said.

"People unfamiliar with the mountains and how altitude effects weather are not cautious enough," he said.

The analysis of death rates by state was done by CNN/Money. Because so many factors that affect death rates are beyond human control, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does not compare death rates by state. NHTSA does tabulate figures like these but has not yet tabulated data for 2003 fatalities.