For many, New Year's Eve means Champagne, parties, watching the ball drop in Times Square or quiet dinners with friends.
Unfortunately, as many insurance companies can attest, the holiday also means a lethal combination of alcohol and crashes. But, according to recent analysis from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), Jan. 1 is the deadliest day on average for alcohol-related crashes involving a motor vehicle, pedestrian or bicyclist.
IIHS researchers reviewed the five most recent years of available fatal crash data and found that every New Year's Day, an average of 70 lives were lost in crashes in which at least one driver, pedestrian or bicyclist had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 percent or higher. Of the average of 113 crash deaths on Jan. 1, 62 percent were due to alcohol impairment, the researchers noted, which is nearly double the overall impairment rate of 35 percent during the 201115 period.
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Rosalie Donlon
Rosalie Donlon is the editor in chief of ALM's insurance and tax publications, including NU Property & Casualty magazine and NU PropertyCasualty360.com. You can contact her at [email protected].
