MOTORING NEWS - Saturday is the most dangerous day to drive, while Tuesday is the safest day to be on the road. This is based on the latest study published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), as reported by USA Today.
Two studies by the US website Avvo used statistics from the NHTSA's fatal analysis reporting system of 2016 and calculated the number of car crash-related fatalities from across the country; by day and according to the time of day.
With data based on all 268 799 080 cars registered in the US, Avvo found that most fatalities occurred on Saturday, at 6 802 out of the total of 37 461 road-related deaths recorded.
Traffic deaths have been on a steady decline over the past years thanks to active and passive driver safety and assistance systems in cars. However, this recent study finds that vehicle-related deaths took a turn for the worse. This can be attributed to the fact that there are more vehicles on the road, taking up the same space. Generally US roads are also regarded as suffering from a dire need of updating and maintenance.
Saturday's figure is 53% higher than the 4 444 deaths recorded on Tuesdays, the day of the week with the least vehicle-related fatalities. Second to Saturday, Fridays had 5 826 deaths and Sunday was third most dangerous with 5 809 deaths.
In a separate analysis, Avvo also found that fatalities most often occurred between 16:00 and 18:59. Generally speaking, that's about the time the majority of the workforce leaves for the rush hour commute home, or after the same crew wraps up the usual "happy hour" period.
The study also found that a lot of those fatalities are related to driving under the influence of alcohol, which played a major role in these statistics. The NHTSA found that 10 497 deaths out of the 37 461 (28%) involved alcohol-impaired driving.
Article: Digital Trends
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