Saturday most dangerous day to drive
Despite several years of steady declines, deadly vehicle crashes are on the rise, according to the most recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The safest day to be on the road: Tuesday. Most dangerous: Saturday.
That’s according to a new study by Avvo, an online legal referral and review site, which analyzed data from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System in 2016 on how many car crashrelated fatalities happened across the country by day of week and time of day.
The analysis found that of the 37,461 road deaths in 2016, 6,802 lives were lost on Saturdays. That was 53 percent higher than the 4,444 deaths that happened on Tuesdays, the day with the lowest number of crash-related deaths.
The second and third deadliest days were also associated with the weekend: Friday (5,826) and Sunday (5,809).
“We can see various trends across the country where more drivers are on the roads during the weekends and also more careless and potentially reckless during this time,” said Avvo marketing executive Jeremy Reitman.
The analysis also found that the afternoon rush hour time period is more dangerous than the morning commute.
The deadliest time period of the day was between 4 p.m. and 6:59 p.m., with 6,201 crash-related fatalities. That was 85 percent higher than the 3,345 deaths that occurred in the time between 7 a.m and 9:59 a.m., the time period with the lowest number of fatalities.
The 7 p.m. to 9:59 p.m. time period followed closely behind as the second deadliest time period with 6,067 fatalities.
One of the major factors involved with fatal car crashes is drunken driving, according to NHTSA.
The safety agency found 10,497 deaths from alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2016.
That means 28 percent of the 37,461 traffic fatalities in 2016 involved drivers with blood-alcohol content of .08 percent or higher, the legal limit for driving under the influence or while impaired in all 50 states.
Driving too fast is another major factor in car crash-related fatalities: Speeding killed 10,111 people in 2016, according to NHTSA. That makes up about 27 percent of all fatal crashes.