Most Americans live in urban areas. If you track the number of miles that people drive every day, more are covered in these urban areas. Every individual drive may be shorter – a commute of just a mile or two – but there are so many more people driving that they put up more cumulative miles.
However, fatal accidents are split between the urban and rural locations. Since less driving happens on rural roads, this means that they are actually more dangerous. They are creating a higher fatal accident rate. But why is this?
Speed limits are higher
One of the main reasons is simply that people are driving faster. When you look at studies of fatal accident trends, what you’ll find is that they are always more likely at higher speeds.
This doesn’t mean that the person was breaking the speed limit or driving recklessly. But simply driving 55 miles an hour because that’s the speed limit still means that a person faces greater risks than driving 25 miles an hour in the city. The crash could be completely the same otherwise, but the speed makes the rural accident vastly more likely to result in fatalities.
Medical care is farther away
Additionally, first responders are farther away, as is the hospital. It can take time simply to respond to an accident and then transfer someone to the nearest medical center. In a rural area, for instance, that could take a half an hour, during which the patient passes away. In an urban setting, the same process may only take five or 10 minutes, meaning that doctors are able to save the person’s life.
Have you lost a loved one in a car accident or suffered life-altering injuries? If so, you need to know how you can seek financial compensation from the driver who was responsible.