The Most Dangerous Days to Drive Iowa Roadways Are Here!

Happy Thanksgiving, Pilgrim. It's here, and hopefully, it'll be a day for Iowans to relax and unwind. But if not, know that others, around Iowa, working too, and there is some solidarity in that. You might be thinking, "Yeah, solidarity." I'm trying to make you feel better. Okay, now go with it.

Now, that you're feeling much better, after my pep talk, let's chat about what you're doing for turkey day.  Oh yeah, maybe working.  Stop bringing us down, dude,

Where Did the Negativity Go?

Hey, now that we've jettisoned all the negativity, If you aren't working will you be the host?  Or is there going to be some travel in your plans?

If You're Staying In

If you are staying home, it might be a bit safer, UNLESS you will be deep frying your turkey.  That's a whole different mess with safety concerns of its own.

If you're staying home, hopefully, you've gotten your supplies before now but if not you might be seeing me in the store.  I'm quite last minute with most holiday cooking and we might bump carts. You best have good insurance if we do. I was once in an overturned cart accident, back in '78, and my epiglottis still hasn't recovered to this day.

Headed Out on Iowa's Highways & Byways?

If you will be hitting the road this Thanksgiving, know that it's some of the most dangerous driving days of the year.  According to AAA 80 million Americans will be traversing the roadways on Thanksgiving.  It's a numbers game.  The more people on the road, the more chances of an accident.

Don't you think, AAA, would be Arthur Fonzarelli's (The Fonz) favorite organization or is that just me?  If you are aware of "The Fonz" may I say "Aaaa" to you!  If not, wow, I don't know what kind of world we live in.  Please enlighten yourself.  You could even go down a rabbit hole and learn about The Fonz's girlfriend Pinky Tuscadero but I digress.  Back to being safe on the roadways.

Truckinfo says Iowa has had several fatal accidents in the years 2003 through 2022 on Thanksgiving, That data was provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as well as The US Census Bureau.

The majority of traffic crashes on Thanksgiving are alcohol and speed-related, then they fall off to other reasons.

Here are the roadways, says Truckinfo, where Iowans and other travelers have lost their lives on Thanksgiving. The roads are listed with the number of lives lost.

The list of roadways is many and the rest of the list is below.

How Do They Get these Numbers?

So, you're looking at data about fatal car accidents that happened during the Thanksgiving holiday. The period they’re focused on is from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving all the way through Sunday after Thanksgiving. The data you have comes from two main sources: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the US Census Bureau.

Get our free mobile app

The fatal accident numbers you're looking at include all the deaths from car accidents that happened during Thanksgiving from 2003 to 2022—so it’s a 20-year total.

The population data comes from the US Census Bureau and is from 2022, which tells us how many people were living in the country at that time.

In short, you're comparing how many people died in accidents over Thanksgiving in those 20 years and comparing that to the population size in 2022 to get a sense of how big a deal Thanksgiving travel-related fatalities are.

How Do We Decompress?

And now, for your viewing pleasure and to hopefully lower your stress level, a beaver eating some cabbage.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving, Pilgrim, and stay safe!