THE MOST DANGEROUS ROADS IN AMERICA
By Nate Lee
Okay, so your odds of being one of the tens of thousands who die in traffic accidents each year aren’t going to move you to consider public transportation or telecommuting or even slowing down.
So, just watch out, especially when you’re on these particular roads. Remember, these are the fatalities. Not the maimed for life. Not the critically injured. Not the totaled. Just the dead.
INTERSTATES
Most of this Death Road is as flat and straight a piece of interstate as you can find anywhere. Interstate 15, from Southern California to the Nevada line, still claims the dubious title of America’s most dangerous interstate. Death toll over five years: 173 people.
Why? Folks are just in too big of a hurry to get to Vegas and don’t mind gambling with their lives – and those of others. Plus, this stretch has always had the reputation for being unpatrolled, though reports are that that’s changing. Perhaps the drivers who head to Vegas on the weekend, when it’s too crowded to speed, should be thankful. You may be bored by this highway, but at least you won’t be bored to death.
Oh, by the way, it’s almost as dangerous when you cross the line into Nevada, and doesn’t really get that much safer until you’re out of Utah.
At the other end of the country, I-95 gobbles up lives almost as fast as I-15. The deadliest stretch there is in Florida, from Boca Raton to Jupiter, with 48 lives over five years. The reason? That Florida flat just seems to encourage outrageous speeds.
Other areas you should watch out for are the I-10 through Houston, Texas, and the I-94 through Chicago and heading up to Wisconsin. Because Wisconsin bars and liquor are more readily available for underage Illinois partiers, the DWI rate is huge coming back south.
Intoxicated drivers are also why the I-5 through San Diego is one of the most dangerous stretches of interstate. Tijuana’s drinking age is 18, compared to 21 in California. Consequently, it’s the “drunkest” highway, too. An average of 35 people a day are arrested for drunk driving there, over 12,000 a year. And that’s just the ones who are caught.
BACK ROADS AND STATE HIGHWAYS
Unfortunately, the back roads and state highways are more dangerous than the interstates in a way. Compared to how many cars travel on them, they are twice as dangerous as the interstates.
America’s most dangerous highway is in Southern California, appropriately enough, but not exactly where you would expect it. Far, but not too far, from the glut of asphalt that claims most of the Los Angeles Basin is a lonely stretch of highway known as Pearblossom --- or, to locals, Blood Alley.
It’s State Road 138, and in its 30-something miles, it goes from treacherous mountain roads with no shoulders and deep valleys to an even more dangerous flat-out highway that seems to be full of test pilots from Palmdale in an even bigger hurry to get to Las Vegas. It’s tallied 39 life-losers in the five years that Dateline NBC did a study of America’s most dangerous highways. It may not be Hwy. 1, but it’s definitely Highway Number One for fatalities.
Perhaps the view is just too breathless on Hwy. 2 (appropriately the second-most dangerous highway), which snakes its way through the mountains and lakes of northern Montana, from the Idaho border east to Kalispell. It has certainly taken the breath away from more than its share of drivers --- permanently. The local American Legion puts up crosses to remind drivers to watch the road, too, every once in awhile.
Those traveling through South Carolina who prefer the more scenic route closer to the ocean, travel Hwy. 17 at their peril, especially when they enter Beaufort County. Maybe, again, the route is just a little too scenic.
CITY STREETS
Apparently, once those drivers get into Las Vegas, they’re still not prone to slow down. Speed has killed fourteen people on West Sahara Blvd. alone.
As with the most dangerous intersections (see other article), Phoenix claims no less than seven of the ten deadliest (due to speed) city streets. Isn’t it refreshing to know that it’s not a gaggle of blind seniors causing the fatalities? The total for all seven: 190 deaths.
Watch out, also, if you’re cruising on highways when they go through cities. Tampa, Florida (Hwy. 92), Raleigh, North Carolina (Hwy. 1), and Denver, Colorado (Hwy. 40) are the worst. Maybe, at least with Denver, you’re better off staying on the Interstate.
