The Most Dangerous Highway in America

According to a new study, Interstate 4 is the most dangerous highway in the United States. 

Spanning a total of just 140 miles, I-4 has the most accidents of any highway in America. By contrast, Interstate 95 – another Florida highway that extends all the way to Maine – comes in high on the list, but it spans more than 1500 miles, i.e, over ten times as far as Interstate 4.

Safe driving app EverDrive, from insurer marketplace EverQuote, combined their data with numbers from the Federal Highway Administration to come up with the list. In fact, most of the interstates topping the deadly list are located in the southern half of the nation. As CityLab explains, this is likely due to a combination of factors, from the sheer number of drivers on the roadways to the regulations – or lack of them – they deal with.

Why would such relatively dry, temperate and ice-free highways be so dangerous? Sheer volume is part of the answer: All of these are extremely well-trodden roads, with traffic volumes on most of them topping a quarter-million cars every day. But these states also clock in high on various rankings of distracted driving, with Arizona and Texas two of only a few states with no kind of behind-the-wheel ban on technology use (Montana is another). Texas also enjoys a new rural toll road with a posted 85 mile-per-hour speed limit, giving drivers there the highest average speed limits in the nation. Cell phone motion data from EverDrive supports the theory that drivers in at least two of these states are picking up their devices more than in others: Texan users turn to their phones an average 1.35 times per car trip and Floridians 1.4 times per trip, compared to a national average of 1.1 times.

Judging by reaction to the news about I-4 on social media, Floridians aren't surprised

Comments

it not the highway it's the idiots driving on it

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