The traffic death rate on rural roads is 2.6 time higher than the urban rate; 1.8 vs 0.7 per 100 million miles, say CDC researchers in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Seat belt usage is 14 percentage points lower among rural motorists than city residents, said the scientists, noting, “A substantial predictor of a crash-related death among passenger vehicle occupants is lack of seat belt use.”
“In 2015, an estimated 19 percent of the U.S. population lived in rural areas, yet more than half (57 percent) of the 22,441 passenger-vehicle–occupant deaths occurred on rural roads,” said the “surveillance summary” in the weekly CDC publication. “Seat belt use decreases and age-adjusted passenger-vehicle-occupant death rates increase with increasing levels of rurality. Improving seat belt use remains a critical strategy to reduce crash-related deaths…”
Besides seat belt use, factors that contribute to deaths in car crashes are the higher speeds of rural drivers, travel on roadways with fewer improvements and the longer distances to hospitals, said the researchers. “Rural areas also have higher proportions of older adults (≥65 years) and older adults are at increased risk for severe injury and death after a crash because of various factors such as frailty.”