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Latest Crash Study Finds Fatalities on Rural Roads in Georgia 

Are Double the Metro Crash Deaths 

March 10, 2004

This article has been reproduced here, in full, by kind permission of The Weekly

The Governor's Office of Highway Safety announced today that the number of Georgians dying from crashes on rural county roads is more than double the number of motor vehicle fatalities occurring in the metropolitan areas of Georgia. “In the most recent study, 327 people died in crashes in the five metropolitan Atlanta counties, compared with 718 crash fatalities in our rural counties,” said GOHS Director Bob Dallas. 

   The surprising contrast comes from the latest CASI Report published by the Georgia Department of Motor Vehicle Safety. The revealing accident data is based on the latest figures available from the 2002 Crash Analysis, Statistics & Information (CASI) Report. “Due to a number of factors, we have long suspected this was case,” said Director Dallas. “Now the numbers confirm the worst of our suspicions. For all age groups, rural counties have the most people killed in motor vehicle crashes and the highest fatal crash rate.” 

   Behind the disparity in highway fatality rates is a fact that shatters one major stereotype long-held by many motorists. Non-interstate roads here are statistically shown to be more dangerous than our interstates. In 2002, 1315 people died on state, county and city roads, compared with 216 deaths on Georgia's interstate highways. “Crash injury data also supports this perspective,” said Director Dallas. “In 2002, there were 5,068 serious injuries in crashes on non-interstate roads. The number of serious crash injuries on interstates came in considerably lower at 661.” 

   Dallas said one contributing factor is the reality of the way rural road are constructed, which greatly increases the risk of a fatal crash, compared to limited access highways. “Rural roads frequently become fatality crash sites because they are often narrow, two-lane roads with no physical barrier or division separating oncoming traffic. Add the element of frequent entering and exiting traffic and it creates a formula for fatalities,” Dallas said. 

   “But another major factor is safety belts,” said Dallas. “There is no primary enforcement of the Georgia safety belt statute for occupants of pickup trucks and that alone results in an estimated seventy-to-eighty pickup truck crash deaths per year.” Deaths involving pickup truck occupants statistically have a greater occurrence on rural roads and because of the higher center of gravity, there's a higher risk of rollover and occupant ejection. In 2003 safety belt usage rates for pickup trucks was a low 66.1% versus 84.5% for all passenger vehicles. 

   Failure to wear safety belts leads to an estimated 5,760 additional pickup truck injuries in Georgia and costs Georgians $346 million in related healthcare costs and economic losses. Said Director Dallas, “Perhaps the worst part of all, is that the fatality rate in our rural counties is now triple for drivers age 16-to-17. The killing, maiming and injuring of hundreds of Georgians involved in crashes each year is preventable; if we could just get all occupants of cars and pickups to wear their safety belts.”

Source: The Weekly