Independence Day is about fireworks, parades and picnics, sure, but there's another reality — and it's a sad counterpoint to what's supposed to be a celebration of freedom. The Fourth of July is the deadliest summer holiday on the roads.
This is partly because the holiday is pegged to a specific date. Though it can come on a weekend or be weekend adjacent, some years it falls midweek, on Thursday in 2024 for example. You don't always get a long weekend like Labor Day or Memorial Day, so driving travel can be more concentrated, sometimes even down to the one day. A lot of drinking and other bad decisions can be concentrated on that day too.
The folks at the Jerry insurance app took a hard look at NHTSA crash data along with Census Bureau info and came up with some numbers and charts that you might find sobering this Fourth, when a record 60.6 million Americans are expected to be traveling: To address the problem of young people drinking on the Fourth, MADD recommends using strategies from the Power of Parents Handbook, saying a five-year study concluded that the book helps teens become more likely to decline rides from impaired drivers and less likely to drive when impaired themselves.
The Jerry app's report features a dozen revealing charts. We've included two of them here, but for a deeper dive, you should check out the full report.