A new study by car insurance saving app Jerry, reports drivers in South Dakota are most at risk of drunk driving Thanksgiving travel traffic fatalities.
The number of fatal traffic crashes over the Thanksgiving holiday rose by 24% in the two years after the COVID-19 outbreak, hitting the highest level since 2007, as more people chose to avoid air travel on what is traditionally the busiest travel holiday of the year.
In 2021, the last year for which data is available, 531 people died in 479 fatal crashes during the Thanksgiving holiday period. The number of fatalities was the highest since 2017.
Jerry dug into the data to learn more about what’s behind those numbers. In the 10 years from 2012 through 2021, Thanksgiving ranked as the third-deadliest driving holiday of the year, behind the Fourth of July and Labor Day.