Why You Shouldn’t Drive Labor Day Weekend
So we went looking for stats on Labor Day Weekend related injuries to warn you about. We wanted to see if you'd be more likely to hurt yourself at the bbq, campfire, fireworks, errant fly ball during a softball game.
Nope. Turns out if you're going to get hurt this weekend, chances are it's going to be because of a car accident.
Labor Day Weekend is the second-worst weekend to be on the roads in the United States, averaging 397 deaths on the road each year. The weekend’s driving deaths peaked in 2005 with 456 fatal car accidents. (Finder)
Second only to the 4th of July and followed by Memorial Day and Thanksgiving.
And while Michigan is not the deadliest state when it comes to dangerous roads on Labor Day (California takes that honor), one of our cities is in the top 5.
Top 5 deadliest cities
Deadliest cities | Number of deaths |
---|---|
Los Angeles, California | 117 |
Houston, Texas | 59 |
Chicago, Illinois | 56 |
Phoenix, Arizona | 43 |
Detroit, Michigan | 29 |
(Finder)
Further data states that the deadliest time to be on the road is between 6p and 12a with the window of 6p - 9p being the danger zone. And that's just for normal driving. Impaired driving accidents resulting in death usually happen between midnight and 3 am.
The bulk of those deaths happen in the early morning hours, with drunk driving causing 63% of deaths between midnight and 3 a.m.(Finder)
So we know that roughly 390 - 400 people are expected to die on the road this year during this holiday. And even though Michigan isn't one of the top 5 deadliest states, Detroit ranks up there as one of the cities. Alcohol is a major factor and being on the road after 6 p is bad enough. But between midnight and 3 is upping the stakes even more.
Let us throw one more thing at you.
One person is killed about every 50 minutes in a drunk driving crash. This Labor Day holiday, and every day, make it a point to drive sober. In fact, during the Labor Day holiday weekend from 2014-2018, 44% of traffic deaths involved drivers who had been drinking — 945 people died. (NHTSA)
Be careful out there this weekend. Please.