The weekends pose a much higher risk to drivers than the work week. A recent study that looked at the statistics from 2016 showed that 6,802 deaths happened on Saturday, 5,826 happened on Friday and 5,809 happened on Sunday. Those are the three deadliest days by a long shot, with even the lowest (Sunday) bringing about hundreds more deaths than any weekday — and over 1,000 more than the lowest weekday, which was Tuesday.
Why are the weekends so dangerous? There are a lot of reasons. Higher traffic volumes play a role since people are not at work or school. Reckless driving also comes into it.
However, one key factor that researchers noted was the uptick in drunk driving on the weekends. They called these crashes a major factor and pointed out that they lead to 29 daily deaths, on average.
The weekends get a disproportionate number of those deadly wrecks because that is when people tend to stay out late and drink, whether that means family members going to dinner, friends going to the bar or college kids drinking at house parties.
After all, there are 3.3 times as many drunk driving accidents leading to fatalities at night as there are during daylight hours. And the weekends are when otherwise busy people have more time to stay out late. The risk naturally rises, and the statistics prove it.
Have you gotten into an accident with a drunk driver? It’s a risk every day, but especially on the weekends, and it can leave you with staggering medical bills and other costs. You need to know if you have a right to financial compensation.