Kentucky is not among the top 10 most dangerous states to drive in, according to a study based on 2014 crash statistics. However, people who live in rural areas of the state may want to be aware that rural roads are more dangerous than roads in heavily populated areas. Though just 19 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, over 50 percent of the fatal car accidents in the country take place on rural roads.
The study on dangerous states to drive in was conducted by analyzing fatal car accident data collected by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Federal Highway Administration for 2014. Researchers looked at the crash data for each state and compared the number of fatalities to the size of the population. With 25.7 car accident deaths for every 100,000 people, Wyoming was found to be the most dangerous state to drive in.
To put Wyoming’s data into perspective, the overall car accident fatality rate for the U.S. was 10.2 deaths for every 100,000 people. Wyoming was five times more dangerous for drivers than Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the country’s safest states to drive in. Researchers found that low seat belt use and high numbers of drunk drivers tended to correspond with higher fatality rates in many states.
Car accidents can occur for a variety of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with driver error, such as a sudden snow or rain storm or a poorly-maintained or lit roadway. The majority, however, are due to human factors, and a person who has been injured in a collision caused by the negligence of another motorist might want to obtain legal help when seeking compensation for the losses that have been incurred.