For the purpose of this fact sheet, rural and urban boundaries are determined by the State highway departments and approved by the Federal Highway Administration. The State highway departments use the U.S. Census Bureau’s rural and urban boundaries.1 In this fact sheet, the 2013 rural and urban information is presented in the following order: * Overview * Time of Day * Speeding * Alcohol * Restraint Use * Rollover Crashes * Driver Characteristics * Fatalities by State In 2013: * There were 30,057 fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes resulting in 32,719 fatalities. * Of these 30,057 fatal traffic crashes, there were 15,998 (53%) that occurred in rural areas, 14,026 (47%) that occurred in urban areas, and 33 (<0.5%) that occurred in unknown areas. * Of these 32,719 traffic fatalities, there were 17,696 (54%) that occurred in rural areas, 14,987 (46%) that occurred in urban areas, and 36 (<0.5%) that occurred in unknown areas. * According to the 2013 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, an estimated 19 percent of the U.S. population lived in rural areas. However, rural fatalities accounted for 54 percent of all traffic fatalities in 2013. Figure 1 presents the motor vehicle traffic fatality trends in the most recent ten-year period for which data is available by location (rural and urban): * Rural fatalities decreased 30 percent from 25,179 in 2004 to 17,696 in 2013. * Urban fatalities decreased 15 percent from 17,581 in 2004 to 14,987 in 2013 with some increases between 2004 and 2008. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting