Report finds Nevada’s rural roads more deadly than those in urban areas

By Kyle B. Hansen

Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011 | 1:55 a.m.

Nevada’s rural highways have a fatality rate more than double that of urban roads in the state, according to a report released last week.

The Silver State has the 19th highest fatality rate on rural roads in the nation, according to the report, Rural Connections: Challenges and Opportunities in America’s Heartland, by TRIP, a nonprofit research group based in Washington, D.C.

In 2009, Nevada had a fatality rate of 2.33 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles of travel on rural roads. The fatality rate for other roads in Nevada was 0.98.

The combined fatality rate for all roads in the state was 1.19 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, the report said.

Of the 243 fatalities on Nevada roads in 2009, 73 were on rural, non-Interstate roads.

Nationally, traffic fatality rates have been declining, but the decline has been slower on rural roads, the report says. In the past decade, the fatality rate on all roads fell about 25 percent, but on rural roads it only fell 13 percent.

The report says that rural roads in America are inadequate to handle growing traffic and commerce. It defines rural areas as outside the commuting area of cities with 50,000 or more people.

The report encourages governments to modernize and expand road systems in rural areas.