The data shows Texas sees more fatal wrecks than any other state during the Thanksgiving holiday and that this holiday is number one for deadly accidents.
The study was done by the car insurance savings app Jerry and took a look at data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 2006 to 2020. Texas recorded 749 Thanksgiving holiday fatalities in that period and California was second with 739.
Jerry's Henry Hoenig says when you think of big driving holidays, you think of Fourth of July and Labor Day. "Of course Thanksgiving is a huge driving holiday as well and is the deadliest driving holiday of the year."
Texas has five of the ten cities with the most fatal accidents over the Thanksgiving holiday period. Number two Houston trails only Los Angeles, which has a much bigger population. Dallas ranked third, San Antonio came in fourth and Fort Worth was seventh and Austin ninth.
He says Texas stands out for a higher rate of speeding. 35% of these crashes involve speeding and the national average is 31%.
He says 60% of all fatal crashes involve alcohol or speeding. And the most dangerous time is Wednesday night, before Thanksgiving.
"We do know the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is one of the biggest bar nights of the year. Young people are particularly coming back home and reconnecting with their friends. The most frequent victims of these fatal accidents are young people 16 to 25 years old. The next most frequent are people from 26 to 35."
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