After a car accident in North Carolina involving a fatal collision at a busy rural intersection with a stop sign, vegetation was cleared away, and signs pointing out the upcoming stop sign were posted. Serious accidents continued to occur. The stop sign was then replaced with a traffic circle referred to as a roundabout that allows traffic to flow nearly continuously in the same direction around an island in the center. It's a solution that may help reduce the seriousness of injuries and the risk of fatalities in rural parts of New Mexico.
Rural traffic roundabouts may reduce car accident risks
Driving drowsy is both dangerous and prevalent
The American Sleep Foundation has reported that approximately half of the drivers in New Mexico and across the U.S. say they have consistently driven while they felt drowsy. Drowsy driving causes effects that are similar to drunk driving, including reduced reaction speeds. The Governors Highway Safety Association estimated that 5,000 people died on U.S. roadways in 2015 due to drowsy driving.
U.S. Route 285 a deadly road for New Mexico drivers
Route 285 in New Mexico long been a busy thoroughfare due to thousands of trucks hauling oil, natural gas, sand and water. The revenue from these natural resources keep a steady stream of traffic consistently clogging the highway and causing accidents. Highway 285 is so busy that it has earned the name “Death Highway’ due to the high number of accidents resulting in fatalities.
New teen drivers are more vulnerable to accidents
A new study sheds some light on the risks of being a new teen driver in New Mexico. The main conclusion is that teens are eight times more likely to get in a near-miss or collision in the first three months after obtaining a license as opposed to the last three months of driving with a driver's permit.
Study identifies people most likely to be distracted drivers
According to a new study, certain types of New Mexico motorists are more likely to engage in distracted driving behaviors than others. These types of drivers include women, people who are very attached to their phones, reckless individuals and those who are very disinhibited. The results were published recently by the Society for Risk Analysis.
