Bonners Ferry Local Guide including all of Boundary County Idaho

Highway 95 Nation's Fifth Deadliest Highway

Friday, July 13, 2007; FBS

America's deadliest drives aren't big highways. They're small roads. In 2005, 61% of those killed while driving died on rural, two-lane byways, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office. In Arizona, two-lane roads have three times the fatalities as four-lane roads. In California, more than half of all fatal accidents are on two-lane roads. In both Texas and Connecticut, they account for two-thirds of fatal accidents. Overall, rural roads account for less than half of the total miles in the U.S., yet are bigger killers than the interstates or urban streets. Think of it this way: If New York's George Washington Bridge killed drivers at the same rate as State Route 74 in California, more than 1,000 people a year would die trying to cross the Hudson River. That's more than all the people killed in car accidents in New York state a year. In Pictures: America's Deadly Roads To illustrate the problem, we scoured numerous publications, lawyers' association studies and other sources to find the roads that appeared frequently as being dangerous. Then we turned to 2005 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations Fatality Analysis Reporting System, the most recent available, to countercheck the information and see if any improvements had been made in recent years. In the end, nine roads, none of them major highways, stood out as among America's deadliest. Topping our list is U.S. Route 19 in Florida. This 30-mile section of Pinellas County had a stunning 38 fatalities in 2005. The state is getting rid of grade crossings, and building and turning the northern part of the road into a six-lane, limited-access highway to fix the problem. "However, good roads also need better driver behavior and we are working on this," says Gary Thompson, a traffic engineer with Florida DOT. Highway 74 in Orange County, Calif., is another big killer. An eight-and-a-half-mile section between Perris and Elsinore accounted for 31 fatalities in 2005. Three years of construction begin in 2007 to make it safer. They expect to add a rumble strip at the median, and widen both the shoulders and the road. Situated north of Los Angeles in mountainous country, California's Route 138--an undivided, two-lane road, which turns into a four-lane highway--had 22 deaths in 2005. It is about to undergo major improvement as it will be widened and turned into a toll road. The others are Utah's U.S. Route 6; U.S. 95 in Idaho; U.S. Route 93, Ariz.; State Highway 522, Wash.; U.S. Route 6, Conn.; and West Virginia's Route 10. - Full Story