Minnesota's roads may not be in good shape - one report ranked the state 38th in terms of pavement quality - but at least you're likely to arrive alive. The state has one of the lowest fatal crash rate in the nation and some of the safest roads.
That's the determination of Michael Sivak, a research professor in the Human Factors Division of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. He looked at the number of fatalities based on the number of miles driven and population.
In an analysis of fatal crash data, Minnesota landed on the top 10 list of the most safest places to drive using both criteria. In ranking the deadliest and safest places to drive in terms of the number fatalities per miles driven, Minnesota came in third with 6.93 deaths per 1 billion miles driven. That ranked behind the District of Columbia at 4.20 and Massachusetts 6.24. Connecticut came in 4th followed by Washington state at No. 5.
On the other end of the spectrum, West Virginia was the most dangerous place to drive with 17.63 fatal crashes per 1 billion miles driven. South Carolina came in second at 17.60 followed by Montana, North Dakota and Arkansas.
When compared with population, Minnesota didn't fare quite as well, ranking eighth with a fatality rate of 7.34 for every 100,000 people. The District of Columbia was the safest with 2.37 fatalities per 100,000 residents followed by Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Washington. The most dangerous states were North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Mississippi and Arkansas.
Although the deadliest and safest places to drive vary slightly based on population and distance driven, it's clear that the District of Columbia and Massachusetts are safer than anywhere else, and West Virginia and South Carolina are the most dangerous.
"Because distance driven and population are not perfectly correlated across the states, the ranking of the individual states does vary somewhat based on which of the two measures is being used," Sivak told Better Roads magazine, which published the rankings on Friday.
The number of fatalities on the nation's highways has declined steadily over the past 10 years. So far this year, the National Safety Council indicates deaths from motor vehicle crashes is down 4 percent in the first six months of 2014 compared with the January to June period of 2013. In 2014, 16,180 traffic deaths occurred from January through June, compared to 16,860 in 2013, the council reported in August.
