AAA estimates that 115.2 million people will be traveling over the holiday season this year. Nearly half the country plans to travel between Thanksgiving and the middle of January, according to the 2023 Deloitte Holiday Travel Survey.
Yet as holiday travelers settle into MeMaw's house for Christmas, there's not necessarily a corresponding dip in traffic accidents. In fact, Netradyne analysis shows that drivers are 120% more likely to get into an accident on Christmas Day compared to the rest of the year.
"From our findings, we found that less congestion leads to more distraction and speeding on Dec. 23 and 25 , which in turn, led to more collisions," said Netradyne Senior Analytics Manager Cyrus Mostashari.
On Christmas Day, there's 33% less congestion compared to all other days in 2022, according to Netradyne, but an 88% increase in speeding alerts per thousand driving minutes compared to all other days in 2022. That leads to a 120% increase in potential collision alerts per million miles compared to all other days in 2022.
Holidays in general tend to be a showcase of poor driving behavior.
Data compiled by Samsara show an increase in harsh braking surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday – a behavior that is highly associated with on-the-road crashes for commercial drivers. Harsh braking was 22% higher the week before Thanksgiving and 13% higher the week after Thanksgiving compared to the holiday week.
