Claims News Service, Sept. 27, 3: 55 p.m. EST — Progressive Commercial Auto, part of The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, recently published a study that analyzes what months and days of the week are most prone to vehicular accidents.

Using claim data from crashes that occurred between September 2005 and August 2006, the company's study focused on “light local” vehicles, such as passenger cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, vans and minivans. The study also looked at commercial vehicles such as tractor trailers, dump and tow trucks, and flatbeds.

According to the results, most crashes involving light local vehicles happened on Friday, while the least number of crashes happened on Tuesday and Monday (Saturdays and Sundays were excluded from the study). Crashes involving heavier trucks happened most often on Thursday and least often on Monday and Friday.

In terms of months, the study concluded that December 2005 had the highest rate of accidents involving light local vehicles, followed by November 2005. The months with the lowest rate of accidents were January and April 2006, which the study said was a 17 percent drop from the highest-rated months. When comparing commercial accidents, June 2006 had the highest rate of accidents involving trucks, which was 29 percent greater than the month with the lowest (January 2006).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, about 66 percent of all crashes that involved light local occurred during traditional work hours, although heavier truck accidents happened slightly earlier, between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. Light local vehicles started one hour later — 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

More information can be found at www.progressive.com.

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