There are always risks when you go out on the road but some days, times and locations are more dangerous than others. If you plan your trips you can sometimes avoid driving at times and locations that seem to have the most accident activity.
For example, the most dangerous day for driving in Pennsylvania is Saturday. The most dangerous month to drive is October. And the most dangerous hour is 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Forbes Advisor performed a study that analyzed vehicular crashes across the U.S. involving at least one fatality over the five year period from 2016-2020. They utilized the latest data from the National Highway Safety Administration to perform the study.
PennDOT did their own study, evaluating data from 2018-2022. They concluded that 9 p.m. to 10 p..m on Saturdays was the time frame in which the highest number of crash fatalities occurred in PA, and almost half of those were related to impaired driving.
Forbes Advisor's study concluded that the most dangerous time to drive in the United States, on the average, is rush hour between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. The second most dangerous hour is 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Captain Mark Overwise, commanding officer of the Philadelphia Police Department's Crash Investigation Division has said that in the city there are actually fewer deaths during rush hour. He says that the faster vehicles travel the more likely there will be a death in the collision. He reasons that during rush hour traffic moves more slowly so you will see fewer serious collisions and more fender-benders. Megan Ryerson, transportation professor at U of Penn agreed with him confirming that stop and go traffic is more likely to cause fender-benders than death. She believes that the reason there are more accidents is that since there are fewer vehicles on the road they can go faster and thus cause more serious injury.
While common sense might dictate that the most fatalities occur on big highways, that may not be true. Large highways are actually safer than so-called smaller, over-land roads because the smaller roads are lined with trees, ditches and don't have guardrails, plus cars travel in opposite directions with no center dividers. In an off the record conversation with a retired police officer in Whitpain Township, I was told that Morris Road in Whitpain is one of the most dangerous roads in the township due to the steep, slanted embankments which can cause flip-overs and the countless trees lining Morris Road which can become lethal obstacles in a crash.
Not surprisingly, teenagers are involved in three times as many accidents as older drivers, due to lack of driving experience.
If you, a friend or loved-one are involved in a motor vehicle accident in PA you should speak to a lawyer before giving any statments to any insurance company and certainly before signing anything. Call Worthington Law Group for a free, no-strings-attached conversation regarding your accident. Remember that the insurance companies will stop at nothing to defeat claims-they are in business to make money and please their shareholders, not to make accident victims whole.
