New Study: Poorly Designed Roads In North Dakota A Problem

A new study from Dismuke Law says poorly designed roads are a problem in North Dakota.

I know I've been driving down our highways before and I've said to myself, "Why do we have such a curve in the road here?"  Most of the time I just figured there was a reason for the deviation: sloughs, streams, or the general terrain.

As it turns out, it appears the designs of these roads are a contributing factor to fatal crashes in our state.

In fact, according to the study North Dakota has some of the most poorly designed roads in the nation.

Dismuke Law analyzed the latest National Highway Travel Safety Administration data on fatal crashes where poor road design, such as inadequate warning of exits, obscured pavement markings, and inadequate construction, was recorded as a contributing factor to the accident.

Arkansas tops the list between 2017 and 2021, with 101 fatal crashes due to poor road design out of 2,664 fatal crashes in total.  That gives them a total of 3.79% of deadly collisions in the state involving poor road design.

Alaska came in at #2 with 2.52% of fatal crashes due to poor road design.

North Dakota was at #3 on the list with 1.06% of fatal crashes involving inadequate road design.

5 fatal crashes out of 473 in total.  This ratio is more than double the national average, which stands at 0.38%.  With such flat terrain in our state, you wouldn't think poorly designed roads would be such an issue.

One of our neighboring states, Minnesota also made this top 10 list coming in at #9 with fatal crashes due to poor road design.