According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, August is the most dangerous month of the year to drive in, and it turns out, statistically speaking, that Saturday is the most dangerous day to drive. But why is that true?
Some might argue that winter is the most dangerous due to snowfall and icy roads, which often means dangerous road conditions. But sometimes people don't really think about how drivers react to these condition. It turns out most people actually stay indoors and off the roads, and those who do go out for a drive, tend to drive slower under inclement weather.
To where in summer, kids are out of school and people travel. Speed is the single greatest factor to serious car accidents, not so much because of the violation of the posted speed limits but because drivers ignore the weather conditions that call for a lower speed. Car accidents are the number 1 cause of death for people in the ages of 1 and 34. Auto accidents kill more than 40,000 people in the U.S. every year.
In looking at the last 5 years of statistics for traffic fatalities of all vehicle types, the third quarter (July-September) tops numbers for all other quarters for number of vehicular accidents, but in general spring and summer months (2nd and 3rd quarters) are when more accidents occur than in fall and winter months (1st and 4th quarters).
On average, the spring and summer months have 11.3% more fatalities per year than the fall and winter months. The 3rd quarter alone is 5.25% higher than the 2nd quarter (Apr-Jun), 6.64% higher than the 4th quarter (Oct-Dec), but 23% higher than the 1st quarter (Jan-Mar)! So, in opposition to what most people think as the season with the most difficult driving conditions turns out to have the fewest number of fatalities.
No comments:
Post a Comment