dep of transportation northern wisconsin open roads

#Dep of transportation northern wisconsin open roads drivers
#Dep of transportation northern wisconsin open roads driver

And emergency response time and level of available medical care may vary widely in rural versus urban areas. Other factors include the fact that crashes on rural roads are less likely to be seen by others who could call for help. Rural crashes tend to be more severe, mostly due to the higher speeds and high occurrence of head-on collisions, Hughes said. Federal Highway Administration Public Affairs Officer Doug Hecox says the difference in safety between different types of roadways is “something most people never even realize.”

#Dep of transportation northern wisconsin open roads drivers

When drivers head out onto a rural road or two-lane highway, their chances of being involved in a fatal crash shoot up compared to city driving. If you get more people traveling a little more moderately that pays some dividends.” “It also reflects just a general moderation. “It doesn’t sound like much to go from 72 down to 71, but that one mile per hour can be the margin of difference between life and death in some cases,” Hughes said. Federal figures also show vehicle travel in Wisconsin was down an estimated 5 percent in 2008, the most recent year available, from the all-time high set in 2004. State officials have measured an average decrease of 1 mile per hour on rural divided highways since mid-2007.

#Dep of transportation northern wisconsin open roads driver

Vehicle safety improvements and driver behavior, including fewer miles driven and slower speeds, have contributed to the decline in Wisconsin’s traffic fatalities, said Dennis Hughes, chief of safety programs for the state DOT. Travel became safer, as the statewide fatality rate dropped to one death per 100 million miles traveled in 2008 from a decade high of 1.4 in 2003.Florence County, like Menominee, is entirely rural and has no incorporated communities. Alcohol was a factor in at least 79 percent of traffic fatalities in Florence County, the highest percentage in the state.Menominee County is entirely rural while La Crosse is Wisconsin’s 12th largest city. For every mile of travel, motorists in Menominee County, the state’s most dangerous county for travel, were nearly eight times as likely to die as in La Crosse County, the state’s safest county.Travel in rural counties is significantly more dangerous than travel in more urbanized counties.The single deadliest year was 2003, when 836 people lost their lives on Wisconsin roads. Crashes killed a total of 7,571 people during the period.Search database of county, state traffic fatality dataĪn analysis by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism of 10 years of traffic fatalities, from 1999 through 2008, shows that drivers in Wisconsin rural counties continue to die at a high rate even while the overall number of traffic fatalities in the state has fallen to one of the lowest points ever. The tolls in Marinette and 11 other mostly rural counties - Buffalo, Calumet, Grant, Green Lake, Iowa, Lafayette, Monroe, Pierce, Sheboygan, Walworth and Washington - surpassed their average annual totals of the previous five years. Traffic deaths were not down everywhere last year, however. The state Department of Transportation has reported a preliminary total of 547 deaths on Wisconsin’s roads last year, 7 percent lower than 2008’s total of 587. In 2009, Marinette County reached a grim milestone by tying an all-time record of 18 traffic deaths - a toll that included a crash early in the year near Peshtigo in which five family members were killed by a drunk driver.īut overall, traffic deaths in Wisconsin were down in 2009 to the lowest level in 65 years. “That accident shouldn’t have happened, and I believe this could happen to someone else if it’s not fixed.”

“I believe he would be alive if there was just a guard rail there,” Meyers’ wife, Traci, said of the crash, which occurred in dry weather on a straight stretch of road in the town of Middle Inlet in northeastern Wisconsin. Meyers, 47, the father of three sons, died at the scene. 5, Douglas Meyers’ pickup struck a bridge abutment on rural Cemetery Road in Marinette County. Douglas Meyers, who died on a rural road in October, was one of 18 traffic fatalities in Marinette County in 2009 as the county traffic death toll tied an all-time record. Douglas Meyers, pictured with oldest son Chaise on his first birthday, always thought of others before himself, helping people whenever possible, says his widow, Traci.