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Comment by jamesblonde | Hacker News Reader

Montana would be amazingly safe based on your metric.

Rural roads are far more dangerous than urban roads per mile. Higher speeds (whether by limit or driver disregard), worse infrastructure, and less police and hospitals means that the crashes that do happen are far more likely to kill.

Nope. It's top-10 for most dangerous [1].

[1] https://www.iihs.org/research-areas/fatality-statistics/deta...

No actually on that metric Montana is one of the most dangerous and Massachusetts is one of the safest.

    > Massachusetts is one of the safest

For those unaware, Boston (largest city in Massachusetts) has a reputation for incredibly aggressive drivers (so does New York City). Is Massachusetts relatively safer because it has so few freeways? I find it hard to believe this can be explained by "quality of drivers". Another idea: Maybe local police are very, very strict about drink/driving, thus reducing the number of deaths.

>Maybe local police are very, very strict about drink/driving, thus reducing the number of deaths.

The Karen Read trial was illustrative about how seriously Massachusetts law enforcement takes DUI.

How is the Read trial relevant here? Karen Read was accused of intentionally running John O'Keefe over because she was angry at him.

>How is the Read trial relevant here?

The conduct of the law enforcement professionals and people they associate with leading up to the events relevant to the trail is relevant to a discussion of how seriously they take DUI.

OK, how about this: how would someone who knows nothing about you other than your 2 comments here determine whether you think MA police take DUI seriously enough or whether you think they go too easy on DUI?

Read did drive under the influence and police and prosecutors laid harsh charges against her, but they could've laid those harsh charges (first- and second-degree murder IIRC) against her even if she had been stone sober that night, so it seems to me that the Read case says nothing about how harshly police and prosecutors treat ordinary DUIs.

Clearly the cops themselves have no problem with themselves and people in their social circles casually drinking and driving.

We put white crosses on the verge, one for every dead person in an accident. I drive past many crosses every time I run to the grocery store. So...not very safe in MT.

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