Whether you’re in Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana, your travels are bound to take you down some rural roads from time to time – and rural roads present some unique dangers that not every driver is prepared to handle.
Defensive driving is a must when you’re headed through a rural area. Here are three reasons why:
1. Deer are on the move
Wildlife is always a problem for drivers in rural areas, and hitting a deer can total your car. Even worse, however, you can end up in a head-on collision with another driver who crosses the yellow line trying to avoid a wreck with a deer that suddenly leaped into their path.
Deer are particularly active from October through December when it’s mating season, and the hours between dusk and midnight are the most dangerous.
2. The roads themselves aren’t the safest
There’s not a lot of money invested in rural infrastructure, so that means variable surfaces on which to drive. If you turn a corner and hit a pothole, you can easily lose control of your car and crash.
That’s not the only problem, however: Guardrails aren’t always where you’d expect them to be, and hills and sharp curves are common. A driver who takes a rural road too fast can be in trouble.
3. Hospitals are few and far between
If you are in a wreck with another driver, don’t expect an ambulance to arrive right away. It can take a considerable amount of time to get emergency medical service providers to an isolated area. That can actually lead to major problems for someone that’s seriously injured in a wreck, where minutes count when it comes to a better outcome.
If you’ve been injured in a wreck on a rural road or a loved one was killed, find out more about your right to fair compensation for your losses.