Arkansas’s bad roads can be deadly
During the last few decades of the 19th century, railroads were the way most people traveled long distances.
For shorter trips, people still used horses or horse-drawn carriages.
But in 1878, a former Union officer from Boston named Albert Pope brought a technology from Europe to the United States.
Until then, bicycles had one big wheel in front and a small one in the back. They were difficult to ride for men and impossible for a woman in a skirt to use.
The European bikes had the same size wheel in the front and back. They were easy for men to ride and with a bar lowered in front of the seat, they were easy for women to ride as well.
Bicycles are still built like this today.
The new technology caught on quickly. Soon for short distance travel, the bicycle was the way many people preferred to travel.
Clubs dedicated to bicycling soon sprang up and many of the clubs networked.
One of the things these new clubs decided was that the old dirt roads good for horse travel were not the best for bicycles.
These biking fans started demanding their local governments build better roads.
Eventually, those in political offices listened to their constituents and began building better roads.
Most of these roads were built by city and county governments.
This — pardon the pun — paved the way for another coming technology we know as the automobile.
Still today, people are demanding more and better roads for their cars and trucks.
A new study by Dismuke Law for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found that Arkansas has topped a new list.
Unfortunately, it is not a good list which our state has achieved Number One status.
The study concerns data on fatal crashes where poor road design — things such as inadequate warning of exits, obscured pavement marking, and inadequate construction — were contributing factors to fatal accidents.
The study looked at information collected by the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which became operational in 1975.
FARS has data on fatal traffic crashes within the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
In order to be included in FARS, a crash must involve a motor vehicle traveling on a traffic way customarily open to the public, and must result in the death of a vehicle occupant or a non-occupant.
That data shows that out of 2,664 fatal crashes in Arkansas between 2017 and
2021, there were 101 fatal accidents caused by problems with the state’s roads.
Surprisingly, Arkansas’ worst year for traffic accidents was 2020. That was during the COVID-19 pandemic when fewer people should have been on the roads.
That year, 30 out of 598 fatal crashes were attributed to poor road design and construction.
The study analyzed the number of fatal crashes involving inadequate warning of exits, lanes narrowing, traffic controls; shoulder design or condition; maintenance or construction-created conditions; no or obscured pavement markings; inadequate construction or poor design of roadway, bridges; and surface wash outs or caved-ins and road slippage.
The other states in this study who were found to be in the top 10 were Alaska, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Wyoming, Maine, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Tennessee.
For comparison, tenth-ranked Tennessee had 36 accidents involving poor road design. Arkansas’ percentage of fatal accidents was 3.79 percent compared to Tennessee’s 0.68 percent.
The study does not say there will be no traffic accidents if road construction and maintenance are improved.
There are many other contributing factors such as bad weather — think rain, ice and snow — and accidents caused by drivers — think going to sleep on the road, using alcohol or drugs and looking at cell phones while driving.