North Dakota One of Nation’s Safest Highways | Video

Amy Fox | 3/13/2013

We`ve recently reported on weather-related crashes and there`s been a lot of talk about the safety of North Dakota highways. A new study shows the state’s highways may be in better shape than we think.

Cars and semis drive along the highway non-stop and what those drivers do behind the wheel had a big impact on a new study put out by carinsurancecomparison.com, which evaluated the nation`s safest highways.

"It`s somewhat surprising to see that North Dakota ranked as high as we did and in the area of traffic safety, which, you know, is definitely a good report,” said North Dakota Highway Patrol NW Region Captain Gary Orluck.

The states were evaluated on a number of factors, including the construction of highway bridges, the number of highway deaths, and federal funding.

"Those are just raw numbers,” explains Captain Orluck. “They`re looking at the state as a whole and the average of the state as a whole. If they were going to look at our part of the region, they would see that we are not as safe, here, as we used to be."

While North Dakota rounded out the top five for the nation`s safest highways, as Captain Orluck explains, there is always room for improvement, especially when it comes to buckling up.

“I think driver behavior is probably the one area we need to improve on and that includes the use of seatbelts and making sure we buckle up and have our kids buckled up.”

With low ticket prices and fines in North Dakota, Captain Orluck says enforcement can be difficult.

"We`re going to try to influence driver behavior because it does come from enforcement,” said Captain Orluck. “It does play a part of that and we have to have a mechanism that allows a little more of a deterrent in effect for that."

As more people move to the state, creating safe highways is still a number one priority. But, law enforcement and the North Dakota Department of Transportation can only do so much; it`s all up to the driver.

"If people drive defensively, they can almost be assured they are going to get from point A to point B in the state of North Dakota," said Captain Orluck.

According to the study, Iowa is the safest state with Minnesota, Indiana, and Michigan rounding out the top five. Click here to view the article by CarInsuranceComparison.com.

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