Share close Digg Stumble Upon Fark Reddit Share Email Print A Jefferson County deputy investigates a fatal crash in Brighton in 2009, a year in which the metro area had the nations second-highest death rate from wrecks. The Birmingham News/Hal YeagerThe Birmingham-Hoover metro area had the nations second-highest death rate from motor vehicle crashes in 2009, according to a new study of the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the study in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Top on the list was the Memphis metro area. Eleven other Southeast or Texas metros were also in the highest 15 metros for motor vehicle death rates in 2009. These were San Antonio, Texas, third; Jacksonville, Fla., fourth; Nashville, fifth; Houston, sixth; Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., seventh; New Orleans, eighth; Louisville, Ky., ninth; Richmond, Va., eleventh; Orlando, twelfth; Miami-Fort Lauderdale, thirteenth; and Atlanta, fourteenth. “In general, rates were higher in MSAs in the southern United States,” the CDC wrote in its unsigned editorial note that accompanied the study. “Urban sprawl, which is a function of residential density, land use mix, presence or absence of town centers, and street accessibility a measure of street density and interconnectedness, might, in part, explain these findings.”
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