Yikes: July 4 Weekend To Be The Deadliest In Years - The Car Connection
Millions of Americans are planning road trips for the upcoming holiday weekend. If history is any guide, though, hundreds of those travelers won't return home alive -- and the situation could be especially tragic this year. The National Safety Council projects that the U. S. will see more traffic fatalities this holiday weekend than at any time in the past seven years. That's saying something, because July 4 is already known as a notoriously bad time for drivers. Unlike Thanksgiving, Christmas, or other major days off, July 4 isn't centered around a formal family dinner. The same is true of New Year's Eve, but that's a nighttime affair, and it's become increasingly common for folks to leave their cars at home -- if people even leave home at all, given the chilly temps. For much of the past decade, there had been a steady decline in fatalities over the July 4 weekend. In 2005, there were 565 fatalities on U. S. roads, but by 2010, that figure had dropped to 365. In 2011, however -- just as consumers began to shake off worries about the Great Recession -- stats shot up to 405. (It takes about three years for... Source: www.thecarconnection.com
