It's Peak Season for Driving High in half of the US
A double holiday on Monday on both sides of the Atlantic – Spring bank holiday in the UK and Memorial Day in the US – comes with important safety advice for those travelling on American roads this weekend. In the spring, across half the US states, there is a bigger risk of dying in a crash compared to other seasons because a driver took drugs.
When measured relative to populations, Montana, Louisiana and Tennessee record the highest fatality rates, while New York has the lowest.
This is according to a new study from Texas personal injury lawyers The Texas Law Dog, who analyzed the latest drug-related collision data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), spanning five years up to and including 2023. “Drug-related” refers to one or more drivers who tested positive for drugs post-crash. The five-year average statistics for March, April and May were calculated to rank which states had the most drug-related fatal crashes per capita taking place in the spring.
Montana is the most dangerous state when it comes to deadly drug-related crashes in the spring. 33.19% of fatal incidents on Montana roads are associated with drugs – or 1.4 per 100,000 residents. The state has 46 deadly crashes in the spring, of which 15 were associated with drugs. Of the 192 fatal crashes that occur annually in Montana, 68 could have been avoided had the drivers not taken drugs.
Louisiana has 1.37 drug-related deadly crashes in the spring for every 100,000 inhabitants – the second highest rates in the US. There are 787 fatal accidents here every year. Drugs were responsible for 221 of them, and 63 happened in the spring.
Tennessee ranked third for drug-induced fatal crashes in the spring between 2019 and 2023. Overall, every fourth fatal accident out of the nearly 1,000 that happen yearly here has been caused by drugs. Come springtime, 94 out of 436 deadly crashes happened because the drivers took drugs. That works out to 1.35 drug-linked fatal accidents per 100,000 Tennessee residents.
Completing the top ten ranking for states with the most drug-induced deadly accidents in the spring are South Carolina, Arkansas, Delaware, Wyoming, Vermont, Indiana and Hawaii.
On the other hand, the authorities recorded the least drug-related deadly crashes per capita on New York roads in the spring between 2019 and 2023. This is when six out of 309 fatal accidents involved drugs – or just 0.03 per 100,000 New Yorkers.
In absolute terms, irrespective of populations, the fewest serious crashes linked specifically to drugs in the spring are recorded in Rhode Island (2 drug-linked out of 19 fatal crashes), North Dakota (2 out of 32), Alaska (3 out of 17), New Hampshire (3 out of 33), and Nebraska (3 out of 73).
“Family-oriented holidays like Easter can weigh heavily on someone’s mental health faced with strained relationships, which may lead to higher drug consumption than usual,” said a spokesperson for The Texas Law Dog.
“There is also an overlap with spring break parties and end-of-year college celebrations, which exacerbate the statistics, making springtime an especially dangerous time of the year to be driving in half the states.”
America saw 1,220 deadly crashes every spring between 2019 and 2023, on average, linked to drivers under the influence of drugs. In 25 states, this is higher than the seasonal average throughout the year.
Among larger states with populations above four million, drug consumption and driving appear especially rife in the spring in Illinois, Florida and Louisiana. On the contrary, this happens the least often in Massachusetts (16.67%), Georgia (17.88%), and Mississippi (19.58%).