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Most Dangerous Times To Drive
Hannah Elliott, 01.21.09, 04:00 PM EST Minimizing risk isn't just about when you're on the road, but how careful you are. image In Depth: Most Dangerous Times To Drive Last week's 40-vehicle pile up on Maryland's I-70 killed two people and seriously injured 12 more. But statistically, driving on a snowy Monday afternoon in January is not even close to the most dangerous time to drive. The most dangerous month, it turns out, is August, and Saturday the most dangerous day, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Article Controls imageemail imageprint imagereprint imagenewsletter comments (2) imageshare imagedel.icio.us imageDigg It! imageyahoo imageFacebook imagerss Yahoo! Buzz All told, auto accidents kill more than 40,000 people in the U.S. each year; they are the No. 1 cause of death for people between the ages of 1 and 34. In Depth: Most Dangerous Times To Drive The difference between August and January 2008 road fatalities were 3,612 versus 2,818. Why the 800-person difference? There are several reasons, it turns out, some having to do with time of day, simple distractions or even outright unsafe behavior. The simple fact is, getting behind the wheel of a car is the riskiest thing most people do every day, says Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. But since fatal crashes happen in "ones and twos" scattered across the country, the general public doesn't realize their collective toll--about 110 people per day, nationwide. Comment On This Story "If a hundred-seat airplane were crashing every day in the U.S., the air transportation system would be shut down with demands for the government to do something," Rader says. "But that doesn't happen with auto crashes." Related Stories * America's Best Snowy Drives * Ten Deadly Mistakes Of Winter Driving * Best Cars On The Road * Most Dangerous Holidays For Drivers * How To Avoid Hidden Holiday Travel Costs Related Videos * Biotech Stock On Steroids * No Obama Bounce For Markets * Hardware Antivirus Solution * Stocks Pressured On Inauguration Day * Markets Down On Inauguration Day * Stories * Videos Instead, drivers are left to look at how and when fatal accidents occur and try their best to stay off the road at the most dangerous times, as well as make sure they'll focused solely on the road regardless of if they're driving in dangerous conditions. Behind the Numbers To compile our list of the most dangerous times to drive, we consulted the latest crash reports from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and AAA's Foundation for Traffic Safety. We also sourced studies from University of California at Berkeley's Traffic Safety Center, which researches motor vehicle collisions and how to avoid them. Time of day plays an important role in evaluating fatal crashes, in no small part because other dangerous factors are compounded at night. The instances of drunk driving, speeding and driving without a safety belt all significantly increase during the night hours and each contributes directly to increased fatality rates. Speeding is a factor in 30% of all fatal crashes, according to the NHTSA. Eighteen percent of fatal crashes during the day are alcohol-related, while 54% of crashes at night are alcohol-related. Two-thirds of the people killed at night are not wearing a seat belt. Nationwide, 49% of fatal crashes happen at night, with a fatality rate per mile of travel about three times as high as daytime hours. Of people killed at night, roughly two-thirds aren't wearing restraints. During the day, the percentage of unrestrained fatalities tends to be under half. The fewest deaths by crash in 2007, the latest year with complete data, happened early in the morning, between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. Those hours see significantly less traffic--only 9% of the average amount during peak hours. Mid-week days like Tuesday and Wednesday also pose the lowest number of fatalities, both averaging fewer drivers and 96 and 100 deaths per day, respectively. Weekends--when the greatest number of people are on the road--predictably see the highest numbers of crash victims, with a combined average of 143 deaths for Saturday and Sunday, according to the IIHS. Simple Steps to Safety Experts say it's the simple things that enhance safety: wearing a seat belt, driving the right speed for the conditions and paying attention to the road. But those are the very things most drivers involved in accidents neglect to do. Ninety-five percent of crashes are caused by human error, says Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the NHTSA, but 75% of drivers say they're more careful than most other drivers. "I think that people in some instances have a false sense of their own abilities and a false sense of their abilities to multitask," Tyson says. "Since most of those crashes are a result of human error, somebody's got to be making a lot of mistakes." According to AAA, 82% of drivers say distracted driving is a serious problem, but more than half say they talk on a cellphone while driving, and 14% admitted to reading or sending text messages while driving. Nearly 75% of drivers report speeding as a serious problem, but 20% say they have driven 15 miles per hour over the speed limit on the highway, and 14% say they occasionally do the same on a neighborhood street. Weather Woes Driving too fast for the weather conditions plays a major role in fatal crashes each year, especially during the winter. UC Berkeley's traffic center says speed is the single greatest contributing factor to serious crashes--not so much the violation of a posted speed limit, but when drivers ignore weather or traffic conditions that require a reduced speed. "It's a significant factor," the NHTSA's Tyson says. "If you're on an icy, slippery road and it's a posted speed limit of 55, if you're going 40, you may be going too fast." If you liked this story, read: Ten Deadly Mistakes Of Winter Driving The World's Most Dangerous Roads The Worst States For Drunk Driving Snowfall obviously makes for dangerous road conditions. But fatalities actually drop across the nation during days with high amounts of snow, both because more people stay at home and because they tend to drive slower under inclement weather, says Daniel Eisenberg, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. The exception to that rule is the first day after a major snowstorm--it takes a day or two for drivers to regain their sense of the snow. Researchers at Berkeley evaluated 1.4 million fatal crashes attributed to weather conditions from 1975 to 2000. They found that fatal crashes were 14% more likely to happen on the first snowy day of the season compared with subsequent ones. It's the Driver, Not the Car The findings reinforce the idea that most crashes don't involve mechanical failures on the part of the car, says Eisenberg. "Even though there are always technological improvements or preventative safety features and signs in the roads, a lot of it comes down to human behavior," Eisenberg says. "It's hard to change that, but to the extent that we can, that would probably avoid crashes." It's good advice to keep in mind. While you might not be able to limit all this winter's driving to Tuesdays at 5 a.m., you can do what the statistics recommend: wear a seatbelt, focus on the road and, above all, stay in control.
The difficult must become easy, the easy beautiful and the beautiful magical.
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
I didn't read it all as my brain was going numb but I think the reasons for higher deaths in August than January. August has more outside activities away from home involving drinking. More people on the road in August. Those evil death mongers we lovingly know as 'teens' are out and about.
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jstone Inner circle Someday I'll have 1473 Posts |
That report is all wrong...
The most dangerous time to drive is anytime that you are in Utah! |
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