CHICAGO, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Northeast is the safest place in the United States in terms of traffic accidents, University of Michigan researchers said after research.
Using 2015 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the UM Transportation Research Institute compared fatality rates from road crashes with five leading causes of death, namely heart disease, cancer, lung disease, stroke and Alzheimer's, for each state and the District of Columbia.
They found that Rhode Island has the fewest road fatalities, 0.4 percent of all deaths, in the entire United States. It was followed by the District of Columbia, 0.5 percent; Massachusetts, 0.5 percent; New York, 0.7 percent; and New Jersey, 0.8 percent.
In terms of fatality rates from road crashes per 100,000 population, the District of Columbia has the lowest rate of 3.4 percent, followed by Rhode Island, 4.3 percent; Massachusetts, 4.5 percent; New York, 5.7 percent and New Jersey, 6.3 percent.
On the other end of the spectrum, states in the northern Rockies and plains, as well as the south, in general, have the most road fatalities as a percentage of all deaths and the highest fatality rates from road crashes per 100,000 population.
Wyoming leads in both categories, with a traffic crash fatality rate of 24.7 per 100,000 people, followed by Mississippi at 22.6 and Montana 21.7; and with 3-percent road deaths as a percentage of all fatalities, followed by Montana at 2.3 percent and Mississippi, North Dakota and South Carolina at 2.1 percent.
Compared to other leading causes of death, road fatalities are lower, but still quite substantial, the researchers say.
Nationally, fatalities from road crashes per 100,000 population is 10.9; 34.4 from Alzheimer's; 43.7 from stroke; 48.2 from lung disease; 185.4 from cancer and 197.2 from heart disease.
Sivak and Schoettle also calculated fatalities from road crashes as a percentage of deaths from heart disease, cancer, lung disease, stroke and Alzheimer's, and found that fatalities from traffic crashes exceed 25 percent of the deaths from lung disease in 18 states, from stroke in 29 states and from Alzheimer's in 40 states.
