Do More Crashes Happen in Urban or Rural Areas?
Imagine driving through the countryside with nothing to see except agricultural fields and the occasional cow. Now picture driving through rush-hour traffic with honking horns, high speeds, and constant movement from all directions. You may think you’d be more likely to end up in an accident in the urban setting; however, data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tells us otherwise.
According to the NHTSA’s 2016 Rural/Urban Comparison of Traffic Fatalities, there were a total of 34,439 fatal vehicle accidents resulting in 37,461 deaths. Of these accidents, 50 percent occurred in rural areas and 47 percent occurs in urban areas. Three percent of the accidents occurred in areas where not enough information was available to determine if the crashes were inside urban or rural boundaries.