Here's How Illinois Ranks For 'Deadliest' Car Cra

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Here's How Illinois Ranks For 'Deadliest' Car Crashes

A financial news website examined traffic accident death rates across the country. See how the Land of Lincoln fared.

By Joe Vince, Patch Staff | Jun 28, 2018 10:34 am ET



Illinois ranks 41st 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.

Illinois fell between Hawaii at 42nd and Virginia at 40th in the rankings.

Here's the breakdown for Illinois:


•Rank: 41
•Road deaths per 100,000: 8.5
•2016 roadway deaths: 1,082 (eighth most)
•Seat belt use: 93 percent
•Deadliest holiday in 2016: Labor Day (20 fatal crashes)
•Fatal crashes on rural roads: 40 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.

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.

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. 'Cause FREEDOM!!

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.

Despite ever-improving vehicle safety features and technology that reduces the likelihood of a fatal accident, driving deaths nationwide are on the rise. Part of the explanation is continued economic improvement since the end the Great Recession. “We had a big dip in traffic fatalities during the recession and when the economy recovers, traffic deaths go up as well,” Rader explained. This is largely because people tend to drive more when the economy is good.

Indeed, the roadway fatality rate dipped from 13.7 deaths per 100,000 people in 2007, the year the recession began, to 11.0 per 100,000 in 2009, the year the recession ended. As economic conditions continue to improve, the traffic fatality rate has climbed slightly in each of the last three years.

Click here to..... https://247wallst.com/special-report/2018/06/...-roads/12/

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

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