About a third of motor vehicle deaths involve vehicles leaving the roadway and hitting fixed objects such as trees or utility poles alongside the road. Almost all such crashes involve only 1 vehicle. Roadside hazard crashes occur in both urban and rural areas but are mostly a problem on rural roads. More than a third involve a vehicle that rolls over, and about a third involve occupant ejection.
Trees are by far the most common objects struck in roadside hazard crashes.
Alcohol is a frequent contributing factor in these crashes. Motorists also run off the road because of excessive speed, fatigue, or inattention. Efforts to reduce these driver errors are only somewhat effective, so it's important to shield or remove stationary objects or avoid putting them along roads in the first place, especially roads where vehicles are more likely to leave the pavement. The proportion of motor vehicle deaths involving roadside hazards has remained between 28 and 30 percent since 1979. Forty-five percent of drivers killed in roadside hazard crashes in 1998 had blood alcohol concentrations at or above 0.10 percent.