New York Holiday Motor Vehicle Fatalities
Statistics show that fatal motor vehicle crashes during holiday periods have a higher rate of involvement of alcohol-impaired drivers compared to non-holidays. Between 2001 and 2005, an average of 40 percent of all fatalities which occurred during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays involved at least one alcohol-impaired driver, compared to 28 percent of all fatalities during the rest of December.
The average number of alcohol-involved fatalities per day between 2001 and 2005 was 54 over the New Year’s holiday and 45 over the Christmas holiday, compared to an average of 36 per day for the whole year. In recent years, alcohol-impaired fatalities per day have averaged 60 percent higher than the rest of December over the New Year’s holiday, and 40 percent higher over Christmas.
Persons aged 21-24 make up the highest percentage of alcohol-impaired drivers involved in fatal accidents over winter holidays. Over Christmas 2006 and New Year’s 2007, drivers in the 21-24 age group made up 37 percent of alcohol-impaired drivers involved in fatal crashes. When the number of fatalities resulting from crashes involving those drivers during the last two weeks in December from 2002 to 2006 is examined, nearly 4 fatalities out of every 10 were in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes.
In New York State, there were 220 fatal crashes involving a 21- to 24-year-old driver in 2007. Of those drivers, 69 (32 percent) were impaired at the time of the crash.
Sources:
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/810870.PDF
National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
