The following four charts are based on the Tables 2B and 2C from SWITRS for the year 2000. SWITRS is a compilation of traffic accidents in California only.
Note that the Tables 2B and 2C are for all collisions (including
both car and motorcycle and alcohol-related and non-alcohol related) which were recorded in California for the year
2000.
Definitions (from SWITRS' glossary):
- Alcohol Involved Collision
- Any motor vehicle traffic collision where a driver, pedestrian or bicyclist had been drinking.
- Fatal Collision
- A motor vehicle traffic collision resulting in the death of one or more persons within thirty days of the collision.
- Injury Collision
- A motor vehicle traffic collision resulting in injury to one or more persons. Injury would include severe wound, other visible injuries, or complaint of pain. A fatal collision is not included in injury collision.
Based on the California's injury data for the year 2000, the most dangerous hours to be on the road, whether you are sober or not, seem to be between 4 P.M. and 6 P.M. Monday through Thursday and between 3 P.M. and 6 P.M. on Fridays. Apparently, these hours are evening commute rush hours. Note the spikes we see in the charts for Alcohol Involved Fatal/Injury Collisions do not show up in the charts for All Injury Collisions.
However, similar spikes show up in the charts for All Fatal Collisions.
Conclusion: More injury traffic accidents occur during evening rush hours on weekdays than between midnight and 3 A.M. Saturday and Sunday mornings while alcohol involved accidents are more prominent in fatal traffic accidents.
Possible Inference The accidents which people who had been drinking get involved in are likely to be more catastrophic than the accidents which sober people get involved in.