PORTLAND (AP) – More than four out of every five of Maine’s fatal traffic accidents occur on rural roads, according to a study by a transportation research group that analyzed highway crash data from 1999 through 2003.

The study determined that 81 percent of Maine’s highway deaths in that four-year period occurred on rural roads. That was second in the nation behind Mississippi.

The statistics underscore the need to improve safety features on rural roads, which are often neglected despite increased demand, according to TRIP, the transportation research group which authored the study.

“Once you leave the interstate road system (in rural areas), you’re on roads that are very likely lacking many safety features,” said Frank Moretti, TRIP’s director of policy and research. “Oftentimes, they were built out over long periods of time and there’s not a lot of consistency.”

“Unfortunately, the public looks at that system in rural communities as their lifeline for getting to places, and oftentimes, they’re traveling on roads that put them at greater risk than really they should be,” he said.

In Maine, the high percentage of rural fatalities is largely because the state’s road system is mostly rural and because other roads are comparatively safe. The fatality rate on non-rural roads was the lowest in the country.

Two-thirds of Maine’s roads are considered rural, according to the state, and the study found that Maine has the highest percentage of rural traffic in the nation at 58 percent. According to state figures, half the 35,000 motor vehicle crashes in 2003 occurred on rural roads.

Safety officials say the report’s call for making rural roads safer is welcome here. In many cases, the state’s rural roads are not built or maintained for the level of use they get.

Rural, two-lane roads tend to have narrower lanes; narrower or in some cases nonexistent shoulders; and roadside hazards such as protruding ledge, trees and utility poles that tend to be close to the travel lane, he says.

“The design standards are much lower (than non-rural highways) and the maintenance and upkeep of those roads is also less significant, and you still have people doing the same thing: They like to get where they’re going as soon as possible,” said Gerry Audibert, safety management coordinator for the Maine Department of Transportation.

The state has invested more in rural-road safety during the past few years, dedicating $7.5 million each two-year budget cycle strictly for safety improvements, Audibert says. Major road projects include safety upgrades as part of the project cost.