Halloween DUIs more deadly than New Year’s Eve
Our Orange County DUI Attorney received information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about DUI accidents. Fatal crashes involving a drunken driver occur three times more often on Halloween when compared to New Year’s Eve. That means that Halloween DUIs are more deadly than New Year’s Eve.
“They’re always more cognizant of not drinking and driving because they know law enforcement is out there and it’s probably not the kosher thing to do,” an official said regarding the jump in accidents on Halloween compared to New Year’s Eve. “Halloween rolls around, people aren’t thinking of that as much.”
Lurking among the “100 Deadliest Days” of summer is the deadliest day of them all – the Fourth of July holiday. The IIHS studied deaths resulting from auto accidents from 2005 to 2009 and ranked July 4 as the deadliest day of the year, with 144 driving-related fatalities on average.
The most traveled holiday period of the year is Thanksgiving weekend, and DUI arrests are at their highest between Thanksgiving and the end of New Year’s weekend. Thanksgiving Eve is even referred to as “Black Wednesday,” as it may be the busiest night of the year for bars. Social binge drinking (consumption of a high volume of alcohol in a short period of time) is also common at this time of year.
The IIHS found that the second deadliest day after July 4 was September 2, followed by August 13, July 15, May 20, and November 11. Perhaps surprisingly, New Year’s Eve ranked 7th, with 130 average fatalities.
IIHS also discovered that seven of the 25 deadliest days in the U.S. occurred during August, which made it the deadliest month on the road. September and July rank as the second and third deadliest months, according to the NHTSA, and March had the fewest auto fatalities.
Many of the deadliest days occur when people celebrate special occasions and events, such as Cinco de Mayo or the Super Bowl. For example, a NHTSA study found that alcohol-related crashes claimed a life every 51 minutes on St. Patrick’s Day in 2010, accounting for 32% of all fatalities that occurred that day.
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