8 States Account For One-Third Of Traffic Deaths

Rural two-lane highways are the largest single class of roads in the United States. They are also the deadliest, especially in the Southeast, according to a study at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

From 1996 to 2000, almost one-third of the nation's traffic fatalities occurred in just eight southeastern states. In those states, 64 percent of deaths occurred on rural roads.

Without Florida in the analysis, 71 percent of traffic fatalities in the region occurred on these highways.

Nationally, 59 percent of fatalities are on rural roads.

"The most frequent crashes in the Southeast occurred on rural roads in wooded areas where people ran off the road and hit a tree," said civil engineering professor Karen Dixon, who headed the regional study.

On rural roads, the most common contributing factor to traffic fatalities was late-night driving by tired or apparently intoxicated motorists, especially on weekends, Dixon noted. Many of these victims were males between ages 16 and 25.

The study also found that 48.6 percent of the region's fatal crashes involved drivers who did not wear seatbelts. Dixon discovered a disproportionate number of pickup trucks involved in fatal crashes.

Researchers focused on Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, Florida and Tennessee for the study.

Another of the study's findings lays potential blame for fatal crashes on the 2.5- to 5-inch pavement drop-offs often found on rural highway edges.

Other fatal crash contributing factors cited in the study are: collisions with commercial trucks (one of every eight traffic fatalities), speeding, inexperienced drivers, weather and driver reaction to an unexpected occurrence in the car or on the roadway (such as a deer in the road).