Assistant Professor

Rural transportation network connects local residents to employment, health care, social activities, and business opportunities. Functional and reliable rural transportation system is critical to the rural economic growth, public health, traffic safety, and social welfare. Long travel distance in South Dakota, a prominent rural state, is not uncommon because of a sparsely distributed population. Delivering people, goods, and services become more difficult as distance increases, especially for the time-sensitive ones such as emergency medical services (EMS). In rural areas, unintentional mortality rate attributed to diseases, fertility, and motor vehicle crashes is higher in rural settings than urban settings (Blumenthal, 2002). According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTHSA), "Delay in delivering emergency medical services is one of the factors contributing to the disproportionately high fatality rate for rural crash victims. " (NTHSA, 1998) In addition, the traffic safety of EMS itself is of serious concern, particularly when the crash fatality rate for these EMS vehicles per mile traveled is estimated to be more than 10 times higher than that for heavy trucks (Nadine, 2008). Ambulance vehicle crashes not only cause new casualties but also delay the golden rescue time for the patient. Same situation applies to the other time-dependent EMS which transport trauma