2751 Vehicle accidents in rural areas

Virtually all the people I know who have died in traffic accidents have been from "home"--i.e., rural, northern Illinois--even though I haven't lived there since 1957. I think I've blogged about this before. My nephew narrowly escaped death from a motorcycle accident last Thursday on Chana Road near Illinois Rt.64. He will be a long time recovering, and we're calling him a prayer chain miracle. But these statistics published in Farm Journal are just stunning. Many more miles are traveled in urban areas than rural, but the rural areas have the highest number of crashes and fatalities.

26.4: In trillions, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the U.S. from 1994 to 2003

39: Percent of VMT in rural areas

61: Percent of VMT in urban areas

42: Percent more crashes in rural settings than urban settings

49: Percent more fatalities in rural crashes compared with urban crashes

2.1: The fatal crash rate in rural areas per 100 million VMT

1: The fatal crash rate in urban areas

24: Percent of fatal crashes in rural areas involving vehicle rollovers

10: Percent of fatal crashes in urban areas involving vehicle rollovers