Holiday Crashes Rise for a Number of Reasons.

The causes of traffic crashes differ between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons, but both periods are equally as deadly for those on the roads, according to an analysis of traffic records over the past five years by researchers at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.

For instance, crashes caused by drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol are more prevalent around Christmas and New Year's Day, while crashes the days around Thanksgiving are concentrated around typical rush hours, a study by the Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS) shows.

'We wanted to get the characteristics of the two periods as close as possible with regard to factors that were clearly not related to the two holiday seasons themselves," says David Brown, a researcher with CAPS who directed the study. 'The first and most-important finding was that these two holiday seasons are very much different when it comes to traffic crash causation."

Uncovering the differences between the two periods can help target law enforcement strategies and other driver motivational and educational efforts. The study employed the Critical Analysis Reporting Environment, or CARE, a software analysis system developed by CAPS research and development personnel to mine information from existing databases automatically.

Researchers examined 15-day periods around the holidays from 2014 to 2018--Nov. 18 to Dec. 2 for Thanksgiving and Dec. 18 to Jan. 1 for the holidays at the end of the year.

Officers reported drugs and alcohol as more...