Highway Improvements Hoped to Save Lives

Widening shoulders on roads contributes to fewer fatalities, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Over the last three years, the department has added shoulders or increased the width of over 1,000 miles of rural, two-lane highways, according to a press release by the agency.

Wider roads may have saved more than a hundred lives.

The data revealing the safety benefits of having wider roads was the result of analyzing 189 Texas Department of Transportation road projects. These road projects were selected from ones all over the state. The data showed that adding wider pavement brought the total number of crashes down.
The results are impressive. According to the data, there were 133 fewer fatalities on the 1,159 miles of highway that were approved over the three years. There were also nearly 900 fewer injuries.
The widening projects were completed using $3 billion in bonds. The total amount available was increased to 6 billion and the money required that the Department of Transportation invest 20 percent of it in projects that were specifically designed to improve hazardous roads or reduce crashes.

Two-lane highway hazards.

Two-lane highways are notoriously dangerous for drivers. Any pass opens up the possibility of being involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle. In some instances, two-lane roads exist in rural areas where visibility is already poor. Many of these roads are also poorly controlled, meaning that drivers tend to drive far in excess of safe speeds.
Widening the roads alone, according to the release, could save 44 lives every year. Over a 20 year period, that would be 880 people who didn't die as a result of narrow, treacherous highways.

In the big city.

Roads in Dallas, of course, are seldom as narrow or treacherous as rural roads, but there are roadways that tend to be notoriously treacherous at certain times of the day or night or during bad weather. Even when the roadway is dangerous, drivers are responsible for how they conduct themselves on it. Whether you are injured on a two-lane highway in the middle of farm country or were injured on a freeway entrance ramp in Fort Worth, contacting an attorney is advisable if someone injured you because of negligent driving.
A Dallas auto wreck lawyer will be able to determine whether or not it's likely that negligence did play a part in the accident you were involved in and what you might do about it to get financially compensated. Filing a lawsuit may be a good option in these cases.