Dangerous roads

Drive the back roads of Southeast Missouri and you're apt to see rolling hills, farmland and wonderful scenery.

But driving those roads could put you at risk. More than half the state's fatality accidents occur on two-lane roadways, not the well-traveled interstates criss-cross the Show Me State.

Missouri ranks 11th in the number of fatalities on rural, non-interstate roads, according to a study published in March. The ranking isn't one that makes state leaders proud.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol knows that it's a matter of outdated road designs and fast-paced travel that account for the high number of accidents.

The patrol says the majority of accidents on rural roads occur when a driver runs of the road and overcorrects on a narrow shoulder.

MoDOT engineers routinely evaluate stretches of road for safety improvements based on traffic crash data. After a fatality accident on Highway 25 near Chaffee, MoDOT is widening the road. The same shoulder improvements were recently added to patches of Highway 34, which stretches through Bollinger County.

Most of the people who routinely drive these rural highways know where the bad curves are, or where they need to use extra caution on rainy or wintry days. Yet more than 1,100 people lost their lives in traffic accidents during 2004.

Motorists need to take precautions when traveling highways they aren't familiar with -- and even ones they know well, if they are narrow, winding and have no shoulders.