How Deadly Is Holiday Driving in Your State?

• Fatal car accidents occurring around Christmas declined 17% from 2015 to 2019, while fatal crashes around New Year's Day increased 13% during the same period.
  
  
• Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia, Florida and Texas had the highest rates of fatal holiday car crashes per 100,000 drivers in each state.
  
  
• Fatal holiday car accidents in Connecticut, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina and Wisconsin were more likely to involve drunk or impaired driving than in other states.

Winter holidays are a time of joy for most but can remain a period of tragedy for many. Nearly 40,000 people in the U.S. die in traffic accidents every year, and many of those fatal car crashes occur around the Christmas and New Year holidays.  

We analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to find the scope of fatal car crashes that occur on the 3 days surrounding Christmas and New Year’s Day in each state, from 2015 to 2019 (the most recent data available). 

This report examines fatal car accidents occurring Dec. 24 through Dec. 26 and Dec. 31 through Jan. 2 for each year of the study. Note that the totals below represent the number of accidents that resulted in at least one fatality, not the number of total fatalities.     

As evidenced in the chart below, there’s a juxtaposition in trends regarding traffic fatalities occurring around Christmas and New Year’s Day in recent years.

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The rate of deadly accidents occurring on the three days surrounding the new year increased every year of the study period and was 13% higher in 2019 compared to 2015. 

Meanwhile, fatal accidents that occurred during the three days surrounding Christmas declined each year from 2015 through 2019, a 17% decrease.

Fatal accidents around the holidays happen in every state, but not at the same rate.

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While Mississippi had only the 19th-highest overall number of fatal accidents around Christmas and New Year’s Day, the state had the highest rate of fatal accidents around these holidays when measured per capita. 

These 10 states haves the highest rates of fatal accidents around Christmas and New Year's Day per 100,000 drivers in the state.

One out of every three traffic-related deaths involve a driver impaired by alcohol, and the Christmas and New Year holidays are traditionally a time for parties and gatherings where alcohol is served. 

In some states, the percentage of fatal accidents involving impaired drivers is much higher than the national average of 33%. Half of all deadly winter holiday accidents in Connecticut that took place during the study period involved a driver who was legally impaired, and a handful of other states had rates above 40%. 

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The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act recently passed by Congress includes a mandate for all new cars to include drunk and impaired driving prevention technology by 2026. 

The national rate of fatal car accidents during the study period were evenly distributed between Christmas and New Year’s Day, with 52% of fatal holiday accidents occurring on the three days surrounding the new year compared to 48% on the three days surrounding Christmas. 

But when broken down by state, some differences emerged regarding which was the more dangerous time to be on the road.

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Two-thirds of the studied accidents in Maryland and Delaware occurred around Christmas, while the opposite was true in Wisconsin and Montana. 

30 states had higher fatal accident rates around New Year’s Day, while just 16 states had higher numbers of fatal accidents around Christmas. 

There are many fatal car accidents around the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays every year, and the share of fatalities around each holiday varies widely between states. Some states have higher shares of fatal accidents than others or higher shares of fatal accidents involving impaired drivers.

The data analyzed comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis reporting System (FARS) database. The most recent available data is from 2019. We accessed the data on November 4th, 2021.

We analyzed fatal motor vehicle crashes that occurred during the holidays. For the purposes of this analysis, Christmas includes the dates December 24 – 26 and New Year’s includes December 31 – January 2nd.

For the section titled “The States With the Highest Rates of Fatal Holiday Accidents”, the ranking was determined by calculating the ratio of fatal holiday crashes to the total number of licensed drivers in each state. 

For the section on alcohol involvement in fatal holiday crashes, we used the per se law that limits legal driving in the United States for drivers 21 and older to a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08%.