Fewer residents, less traffic, more fatalities: rural roads are least safe

Because of their higher speeds, the rural roads that serve only 23 percent of the U.S. population are the site of 56 percent of motor vehicle deaths.  In addition to higher speeds, other causes for this phenomenon are increased average emergency response time (80 minutes in Montana, for example, compared with 15 minutes in Massachusetts), higher number of miles driven, a higher percentage of poorly-engineered roads, and the increased likelihood of illegal driver behavior resulting from absent law enforcement (e.g., drunken driving or failure to use seatbelts).  The findings are contained in a new report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.