Rural drivers are the absolute worst

By MEL ROTHENBURGER/ The Amrchair Mayor

As bad as the drivers are in town, they’re even worse — much worse — in rural areas.

This week’s story about the horse and rider getting clipped by an automobile on Barnhartvale Road proved it once again. And it brought back memories of the Barnhartvale woman who died years ago when a passing vehicle spooked her horse and threw her off.

I drove that road twice a day for years; now I drive Westsyde Road and nothing’s different. It’s not that some drivers on rural roads are careless, inattentive and dangerous — it’s that most of them are.

They’re emboldened by the light traffic on such roads, and by the fact there’s little to no policing. So they treat them like freeways instead of the narrow, winding roads they are.

But they aren’t the only ones who use them. People walk, run, cycle and ride horses on them, and most drivers don’t give them the berth that’s needed when they pass.

It’s a fact that rural roads, with much less traffic than urban roads, experience the highest number of accidents. And the number one cause of those accidents is driver error.

While only about 20 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, about 60 per cent of highway deaths happen there.

Horses and automobiles don’t get along. Drivers fail to understand that horses “spook” quite easily in unfamiliar surroundings, especially when a loud machine looms up toward them or beside them. They can rear, buck or simply hop sideways with disastrous consequences.

It isn’t just the horse and rider who are in danger; the collision can send the vehicle out of control, resulting in a fatal wreck.

Of course, humans and horses aren’t the only victims of stupid driving on rural roads. The slaughter of deer continues unabated through all seasons. They jump out from the side of the road in front of traffic without warning, and the result isn’t pretty — the animal often suffers in pain for hours, and the damage to the car or truck can be substantial.

The defense for drivers is to proceed with caution, yet I’m passed at high speed by rural dwellers every single day even in the areas they should know are favorite deer crossings.

Deer are relatively small animals; at least, small in comparison to moose and cows. There aren’t a lot of moose along rural roads in our area, but there are plenty of cows. It is, after all, cattle country.

And cattle country comes with slow-moving equipment. Tearing around a corner and running into a hay baler is not going to end well for the motorist.

When animals aren’t involved, rural drivers manage to get into trouble all by themselves, smashing into trees and telephone poles or simply driving over steep embankments and into rivers.

They do this not just because they drive too fast but because they’re more likely to drive drunk and careless. According to those who study such things, people use their seatbelts less often when driving in the country than when in the city.

The answers for rural driving are simple: drive carefully within the limit, turn down the stereo, and be alert. But such advice is wasted breath.