The Dangers of Rural Driving

The picture you see above is of the intersection of highways 335 and 35, in central Saskatchewan, Canada. This could be an intersection in any rural part of the world. Instead, it is the intersection where the Humboldt Bronco’s bus tragedy happened, a tragedy which, at the time of this writing, took 16 lives when a bus carrying a junior hockey team collided with a semi. This article isn’t about that accident, as we are likely still months from the findings of the investigation. Instead, this article will be about something more general, but no less important: the dangers of rural driving.

Rural driving of course means any driving that is outside of the city or towns in any country. To be fair, all I can truly write about is rural driving in the United States, as that is the only country that I’ve driven in. But from Google Earth images, the roads, lights, and markings all look similar between Canada and the United States, so I’m confident the information I present here today can be of some value to people both in the U.S., and our great neighbor to the north.

The first thing that a driver notices about rural driving is that there is normally far fewer people and cars around than when driving in the city or town.  This can be a good and a bad thing. It’s good because it means that there are fewer people out there driving stupidly, and fewer people to pull out in front of you or do any of the myriad of annoying driving practices that occur every day in the city. It also means less traffic accidents overall, because if you have less cars on the road, you automatically have less chance of an accident occurring.

But it’s also a bad thing. Less people on the road can lead to people adopting a cavalier attitude towards their driving and safety. If a driver sees few people on the road, that driver might think that he or she are  safer because of that, and because of those fewer people, he or she doesn’t have to focus as much and watch their speed as much while driving. It can also lead to more law breaking, as do stop signs and stop lights really exist if no one is around to give you a ticket for running them? It sounds like an absurd expression, but it is the mindset that many in rural areas have when they come to a stop sign in the middle of nowhere. There’s no chance to get a ticket for not stopping, so why stop? (To be fair though, urban drivers will tend to have the same mindset if they see a red light in the early morning hours and don’t see anyone around, so it’s more human nature that we are looking at here, than rural drivers.)

Now of course, I’m not painting with a broad brush here. The vast majority of rural drivers, just like the vast majority of urban drivers, are good drivers. They wouldn’t intentionally run a stop sign, or go significantly faster than the speed limit at places where it’s dangerous to do so. But we all know that there are drivers everywhere who do these things. In rural areas, the danger is multiplied because of the mindset that can exist in some people of not being watched, and therefore anything goes. Not everyone does this, but enough do that it is worth being cautious in rural areas.

To illuminate this a bit more, let’s imagine a scenario. You have a rural driver who regularly runs the stop sign on the way to the gas station a few miles away from his house, because normally no one is coming the other way, or it’s fairly rare. So this driver runs that stop sign, or rolls through it on a regular basis. But imagine a day where you are driving through this person’s area, maybe on vacation or maybe to see a relative that lives in another state. While you are driving through this person’s area, they could just run that same stop sign when you are coming up to it. Since the driver usually runs the sign with no consequences, he won’t worry about it, and might drive right in to your passenger seat. And since most vehicles in rural areas are trucks, you would be in big trouble if you were in a small sedan.

Animals are another concern in rural areas. I’ve mentioned it in other blog posts, but I’ve been driving on a country road, and drove past elk herds that were thirty miles long. If a large animal like an elk darts out in front of your car, you are either going to be seriously injured, dead, or have a hefty repair  bill coming your way. Just like with the potential rural driver who isn’t paying attention to their route, you also need to be aware of the dangers of animals, and how they are all over rural areas. If this seems hard to believe, just take a look at all of the animal crossing signs you see while driving through rural areas. They are all over the place because the animals are, too.

The most important thing, though, is to watch your speed. If anything, you need to be keeping a closer eye on your speed in rural areas than you do in urban ones. The lack of people around will entice you to go faster. An empty road will beg you to smash that throttle down. But be careful. That empty road could have a police officer or accident scene around the corner. That lack of people could hide a landslide with rocks the size of basketballs which will destroy your tires.

Speaking of landslides, they are of course more common in rural areas, and they can stick around longer, too, because it might take road crews longer to get to them. While I was driving for GM, I recall a situation where there was a spherical shaped rock about the size of a small car tire that was in the right lane of a country road, and was there at least three days. And it could have been there longer, it‘s just that I didn’t drive on that road after three days had gone by. So anytime you are driving while it’s raining, or you can see standing water on the side of the road, it’s a good chance that there could be rocks in the road. This is going to be especially true for the right lane, so if you are on a four lane road, or your side of the road has two lanes on it, use the left lane if there is a possibility that there could be rocks in the road. In my experience, I have seen rocks end up in the left lane of a road, but they are much smaller and less damaging, usually, than the rocks that end up in the right lane. Be careful, though. Left lanes are the faster lane, and you are very likely to have a person coming up fast if you are using the left lane. As always, keep focused, and keep your speed down.

What all of this means is that you cannot let your guard down while driving in rural areas. And I get it, it’s easy to do. You are driving through windy mountain roads, dazzled by the mountains and the trees around you. The area is so sylvan and so beautiful, that the very notion of it being dangerous seems preposterous. But that kind of thinking lowers your focus, and possibly just when you need it. So bottom line: drive just like you’d drive in the city. Stay focused on all aspects of the road and the people around you. Don’t get lulled in to a false sense of security because of the beauty of the area, and keep an eye out for animals. Above all, keep your speed to where it should lawfully be in these areas, and your chances of a safe drive in rural areas will be much higher. Until next time.