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Subj: Most Dangerous Driving Holidays 
          From: Autos.aol.com
          on 12/20/2008 (S621c)
Photo from Autos.aol.com...
It's late at night on a holiday, and local emergency workers are on high alert.  In upstate New York, a speeding car splits into three pieces after slamming into a utility pole.  In Longview, Texas, a
drunk driver hits a Mitsubishi Montero, killing a college student.
In Western Michigan, a driver loses control of her car and crashes
into a parked ambulance.

Just another New Year's Eve, right?  Wrong.  These things all happened on Thanksgiving, the most dangerous holiday of the year for drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Thanksgiving is the day when heavy traffic, drinking and long-distance car trips combine to create fatal travel conditions.
 
Most Dangerous Holidays For Drivers
Holiday Average Vehicular Deaths

1. Thanksgiving 573 
2. Independence Day 505 
3. Memorial Day Weekend 493 
4. Labor Day Weekend 488 
5. New Year's Eve/Day 421
6. Halloween 448
7. Christmas 385
8. St. Patrick's Day*
Although the NHTSA doesn't consider St. Patty's Day dangerous enough for its holiday fatality statistics database, any holiday involving pervasive public drunkenness is cause for concern. Half of the 105 vehicular deaths on St. Patrick's Day in 2006 involved alcohol. 
9. Cinco de Mayo*
A Mexican national holiday, the fifth of May has evolved into a collegiate tequila-fest that has the NHTSA nervous. According to an NHTSA holiday planner, 43% of highway fatalities on May 5 from 2002 to 2006 involved a drunk driver.

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