Rural roads in south most deadly by far

Rural two-lane highways are the largest single class of roads in the U.S.--and they are the deadliest, especially in the Southeast. Almost one-third of the nation's traffic fatalities occurred in just eight southeast states in a five-year period and, of those, 64% were on rural roads, according to a study by the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Moreover, if Florida--a less rural state--is removed from the analysis, 71% of traffic fatalities in the region occurred on these highways as compared to 59% nationally.

"The most frequent crashes in the Southeast occurred on rural roads in wooded areas where people ran off the road and hit a tree," notes Karen Dixon, associate professor of civil engineering.

On rural roads, the most common contributing factor to traffic fatalities was late-night driving by tired or apparently intoxicated motorists, especially on weekends. Many of these victims are males between ages 16-25. The study found that 48.6% of the region's fatal crashes involved drivers who did not wear seat belts.

In a related finding in Georgia's report, Dixon discovered a disproportionate number of pickup trucks involved in fatal crashes. "This is partly because pickup trucks are more often driven on rural roads and because in Georgia ... pickup drivers cannot be stopped by police solely because they're not wearing their seat belt," Dixon points out. "I think this study shows we need to take a second look at this law and reconsider it."

Another of the study's findings lays potential blame for fatal crashes on the 2 1/2"-5" pavement dropoffs often found on highway edges. "Almost half of the nonstate maintained roadway crashes we looked at had an edge drop-off issue," says Dixon. "We don't know if this caused all of these crashes, but nonetheless, the potential exists for it to be a serious problem."

Drop-offs develop as roads are repaved or soil erodes along the shoulder. Roadside ruts are caused by mail carriers who drive with one side of their vehicles on the road and the other on the unpaved shoulder.

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