‘Deadliest’ Car Crashes: How Virginia Ranks

RICHMOND, VA — Despite the awful traffic jams and regular road rage clashes, Virginia ranks 40th in the country for deadliest roads, according to a new report.

The financial news and opinion site 24/7 Wall St. looked at 2016 motor vehicle crash death rates in every state to see which had the most dangerous roads.

Virginia fell between Illinois and Utah in the rankings, while adjacent Maryland ranked 43rd among the states.

Here’s the breakdown for Virginia:

• Rank: 40th
• Road deaths per 100,000: 9.0
• 2016 roadway deaths: 760 (18th most)
• Seat belt use: 79 percent
• Deadliest holiday in 2016: Christmas (12 fatal crashes)
• Fatal crashes on rural roads: 63 percent

The study found that the states with the highest crash death rates were concentrated in the South. On the flip side, the safest states were in the Northeast and Midwest.

SEE ALSO:

• Worst Drivers: Where VA, DC Rank On National List
• What's The Worst Thing About Living In Virginia?
• DC Ranks As One Of World's Worst Traffic Cities: Report

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And if you’re thinking of taking a road trip to Mississippi, you may want to reconsider.

The Magnolia State was by far the worst for fatal car crashes with a rate of 23.1 deaths per 100,000 people, the study found.

Here are the five states with the most dangerous roads and their corresponding death rate.

1. Mississippi (23.1)
2. Alabama (21.3)
3. South Carolina (20.5)
4. New Mexico (19.3)
5. Wyoming (19.1)

Car crashes kill more Americans age 54 and younger more than anything else. And in recent years, they’ve become even deadlier. The national crash death rate in 2016 was 11.6 — the highest in a decade, the study said.

And some states have death rates that are four times higher than others.

“A big factor in a state’s fatality rate is how much of its area is rural,” Russ Rader, senior vice president of communications at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, told 24/7 Wall St.

The five states with the least dangerous roads and their corresponding death rates are:

• Rhode Island (4.8)
• New York (5.2)
• Massachusetts (5.7)
• New Jersey (6.7)
• Minnesota (7.1)

Rural roads tend to have higher speed limits and are often lined with trees or telephone poles. The combination can prove lethal.

Indeed, all of the top 10 most dangerous states had a larger share of rural roads than the national average.

State laws governing seat belt use also play a role, the authors wrote. In 15 states, drivers and passengers cannot be pulled over for failing to use a seat belt. These states have what are called “secondary” seat belt laws. In the 34 “primary” seat belt states, you can be pulled over for not buckling up.

“If every state with secondary enforcement of their safety belt laws switched to primary enforcement, 242 fewer people would have died in 2016,” Rader told the authors.

Click here to see the full rankings and here for more on the methodology.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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