Ohio 1997 Fatalities

Ohio's 1997 fatality rates, fatalities and travel by highway type are summarized below:

Ohio Highway Type

Fatality Rate

Fatalities

Travel

Road length (miles)

Interstate Highways

0.46

132

28,580

1,573

Other major highways

1.38

211

15,271

2,792

Remaining highways

1.84

1,098

59,824

110,436

Overall

1.39

1,441

103,675

114,801

Source: Section V of Federal Highway Administration's Highway Statistics 1997. Travel is in 100 million vehicle-miles-traveled, and the rate is fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles-traveled. "Other major highways" means the National Highway System excluding Interstates. I summed across Federal rural/urban classifications.

Thus, interstates (also known as freeways or motorways) have less than one-third the fatality rate of other roads. Despite obvious differences between freeways and other roads as far as crash types, frequency and severity, the standard Ohio Dept. of Public Safety (ODPS) publications {link to ODPS site} lump all road types together. This serves the ODPS' grandiose pretense that strict enforcement on the freeway system affects the state as a whole (the familiar "deterrence" argument... the same argument unsubstantiated before the speed limit was raised, and clearly disproven after the speed limit was raised to 65-mph). Traffic enforcement on freeways is showy (a lot more people see you on an interstate), easy, and a lot safer than on other roads. Police know how safe freeways are, and they'd rather drive freeways, too. They just don't want YOU to know how safe freeways are. Or, if you unfortunately find out, they want you to believe THEY are responsible for the impressive safety of freeways.

In fact, freeways are our fastest, safest, most fuel-efficient highways, carrying long distance travelers who benefit from higher speeds. Freeways are an expensive investment, but are designed to dramatically reduce most deadly crashes, specifically:

  1. High-speed head-on collisions, by separating opposing traffic;
  2. "T" collisions into the lightly protected sides of vehicles, by replacing "at-grade" intersections and traffic lights with ramps and interchanges; and
  3. Fatal single-vehicle accidents, by eliminating sharp curves and objects near the roadway.

Looking at the record for German autobahns compared to other German highways merely confirms that police presence has little to do with the safety record of freeways.

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November 25, 1999