Fatal car accidents happen on both rural roads and city streets. In fact, the numbers are fairly even. If you look at the stats for any given year in the United States, about half of the fatal car crashes will take place in rural areas. This feels like a natural divide, meaning that you face roughly the same driving risk no matter where you are.
But this isn’t true, and you can tell when you look at population graphs and consider the number of miles driven on each type of road. Far more people live in urban areas, so many more miles are covered on these streets. In rural areas, traffic is much lighter, and you have far smaller population groups. This means that the fatal accident rate is higher on rural roads.
Potential reasons why
But what makes these rural roads more dangerous? The location itself is part of the issue. A crash may be fairly remote, delaying the medical care that a person gets and making it more likely that they pass away from their injuries.
This is why common driving mistakes are more likely to be deadly in rural areas. If a driver doesn’t wear their seatbelt or drives under the influence and crashes, they are less likely to receive the prompt care that they need.
Finally, the speed limits themselves are going to play a role because car accidents at higher speeds are more likely to be deadly. This doesn’t necessarily mean that drivers are more likely to break the speed limit. But when the standard speed limit is 55 mph on most roads, average overall speeds are going to be higher and so the accidents that happen on rural roads are statistically more dangerous.
Have you lost a loved one in a car accident? You may deserve financial compensation for lost wages, funeral costs and much more.