19 Highway 2 in Montana

According to the Center for Excellence in Rural Safety at the University of Minnesota, which calls Highway 2 one of the nation's most dangerous roads, Montana has the highest fatality rate in the U.S. That assertion is backed up by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's findings that rural roads are more dangerous than urban ones.

Why? The reasons include long transportation times for ambulances to get crash victims to hospitals—an average of 80 minutes in the vast plains, where in cities the average is 15 minutes, according to Montana's department of transportation data. Plus, the sparse traffic means drivers drive faster, and U.S. Highway 2 crosses the northern and most remote part of the state.