In the Driver’s Seat

Every year the federal government sends billions of dollars to states to improve their rural roads, and while the conditions of those roads matter to overall safety, a recent study by the General Accounting Office found that a lot of the death and injury on them occurs because people make some terrible decisions while driving. It’s unlikely that the federal government will open a Department of Good Judgment, but, clearly, the study points toward the importance of states more forcefully reminding drivers to act reasonably.

Nearly 43,000 people were killed and 2.9 million injured on the nation’s roads in 2002, with 60 percent of the fatalities in rural areas. Based on miles traveled, rural roads had a fatality rate of 2.29 per 100 million miles traveled vs. 0.97 for urban roads. The GAO classified the causes for those deaths into four rough categories: human behavior, roadway conditions, types of vehicles and care after a crash. These factors work together to make country driving considerably more dangerous than city driving.

For instance, 63 percent of alcohol-related fatalities between 2000 and 2002 occurred in rural areas, though the National Highway Safety Transportation Board reports that there is little difference in blood-alcohol levels among fatalities in urban or rural areas. But rural drivers often drive longer distances and don’t have safety devices such as guardrails to keep them from leaving the road. Similarly, seat-belt use is about the same in both rural and urban areas, but 68 percent of fatalities with occupants not wearing seat belts occurred in rural areas.

Other human factors that make rural drivers more likely to die than urban drivers include speeding and drowsiness. (Both urban and rural drivers, by the way, had crashes after becoming distracted but, according to a University of Virginia study, they were distracted for different reasons. In rural areas, it was animals, unrestrained pets, fatigue or insects either striking the windshield or getting in the vehicle. In urban settings, it was drivers looking at other crashes, traffic and cell phones.)

You know about distractions, tiredness and excessive speed, just as you know about the nondriver factors. The roadway conditions are more difficult in rural areas – there’s less visibility because of rises and sharp turns in the roads. There are fewer safety features, such as divided traffic. The vehicle problem has been reported often: SUVs and pickup trucks are not particularly maneuverable and have twice the rollover rate of passenger vehicles. The speed with which accident victims get treatment also matters – it often takes longer on rural stretches of road.

The policy that ought to emerge from this includes, of course, funding to make rural roads safer, to put in passing lanes, divide highways, add guardrails. But there is also a public responsibility of which drivers need to be reminded: Not all roads are equal. If you drive as if they are you are endangering your life, perhaps your children’s lives and certainly the lives of drivers near you. States should take another small piece of the billions they are given in highway funding to impress this idea on drivers.