A new interactive map produced by the Center for Excellence in Rural Safety charts all the highway fatalities in the US from 2006. And it offers vivid proof of rural highway dangers and the public policies that can make driving safer.The new tool was made public yesterday (the map above shows rural highway deaths in Michigan from the summer of 2006).Users can examine the data many ways — for example, to check whether accidents were alcohol related, to gauge enforcement of seat belt laws, even to see photos of the danger spots along local roads."CERS officials hope the tool will educate the public" — especially those who live in rural areas — "about road fatalities. U.S. Census figures show that 21 percent of Americans live in rural areas and the Federal Highway Administration has found that 57 percent of highway deaths happen on rural roads."