NEW YORK, N.Y. — The West Virginia Department of Highways disputes the findings of a new study by news and opinion website 24/7 Wall Street; they rank West Virginia as the fourth deadliest state to drive in behind Montana, North Dakota, and Mississippi.
The study uses data from the year 2013 including road deaths per 100,000 people (17.9), total roadway fatalities (332 including drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists), percentage of residents using seat belts (82 percent), percentage of drivers killed w/ alcohol in their blood (95 percent).
Jennifer Floyd, Public Affairs Coordinator for the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, said the study’s author misinterpreted information provided by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
“They misinterpreted for each of these states to mean that these are the drivers or the percentage of drivers who were impaired at the time of their fatality,” she said.
95 percent actually represents the number of drivers that the state was able to make a determination on their BAC level. In reality, West Virginia’s number of known drivers with a BAC equal to or greater than 0.08 in 2013 was actually 27 percent.
Floyd said the cause of driving deaths are far more spread across a wide spectrum of reasons.
“We focus on child passenger safety, occupant protection for adults as well, impaired driving initiatives, motorcycle safety, ATV safety and awareness,” she said. “So we’ve got several programs to combat the issues we have state-wide.
“Every issue is a concern to us,” she said. “And really, the bottom line is that we are here to try to save lives. We don’t want these roadway fatalities to happen to begin with.”
According to the study, “Rural roads are more dangerous than urban ones, and the majority of deadly accidents in West Virginia occur in rural areas As many as 58% of all vehicle miles traveled in West Virginia in 2013 were in rural areas, and 73% of all roadway fatalities in the state happened in a rural area.”
Floyd added that government programs are educational, but they require willing partners like law enforcement and leaders in the community.
“These counter measures that we provide in these programs are there to off-set that,” she said. “The more that we can do to push public awareness and the more involvement that we have from law enforcement and understanding from our communities that any help they can provide through spreading the message and getting the message.”
MetroNews reached out to the author of the study, but did not receive a response before publishing this story.