Holiday traffic fatalities in Texas top U.S.
A new study shows that the Thanksgiving holiday is the most dangerous time to drive, especially in Texas.
The study by car insurance savings app Jerry ranks the Thanksgiving holiday period as the deadliest major holiday for American drivers, with 6 percent more fatal crashes than Labor Day, the second deadliest, and 43 percent more than Christmas, the least deadly.
The study also found that Texas is the deadliest state in terms of the overall number of fatalities, with 749 traffic-related deaths during the Thanksgiving holiday week, beating California by 10 to rank the highest in the U.S.
The study examined data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the years 2006 through 2020 and defined the holiday period as the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving through the following Monday morning. The greatest number of fatalities are seen Saturdays, according to Jerry, with the most dangerous hours being in the early evening.
Among cities, Los Angeles topped the ranks in terms of the overall number of traffic deaths with 74 Thanksgiving fatalities — 57 percent more than secondranked Houston. But overall,
cities in Texas dominated the list of those with the most fatal crashes over Thanksgiving. Dallas ranked No. 3, San Antonio No. 4 and Fort Worth No. 7.
Texas ranking at the top of the list didn’t come as a surprise to Houston police Sgt. Salvador Corral, given the size of the state’s population and fewer public transit options in major cities.
“The population of Texas and California is always going to be a determining factor. Los Angeles and Houston with similar demographics, everywhere is about 20 minutes with no traffic; and you don’t have a lot of transit systems like in Chicago where you can hop on a train and get home,” he said.
The study also found that young people make up the age group with the most frequent casualties. One quarter of all people killed in Thanksgiving traffic crashes in the past 15 years were between the ages of 16 and 25 years old.
It also found that 60 percent of fatal crashes involve either alcohol consumption or excessive speeding — something that local authorities are aware of and plan to combat by staffing extra patrol officers.
The long, four-day weekend in comparison to other holidays like Christmas and New Year’s Eve is the differentiating factor, Corral said. On those other major holidays, the agency typically makes fewer DUI arrests than during the Thanksgiving holiday.
“You’ve got a lot of people with a lot of down time,” he said. “You want to self-medicate and get away from all the stressors of life. Throw in some alcohol, and you have a bad mix.”
DWI arrests still happen during other holidays, he added, but “New Year’s Eve is the one holiday where everyone wants to be where they’re at for the countdown, and typically they’ve already been celebrating at that place for a while,” he said. “Everyone is cognizant that at midnight I need to be where I need to be.”