Traffic accidents are very common occurrences in today's world. In the United States, there were more than 6.3 million police-reported in 2004 that involved the use of motor vehicles. Of all those reported accidents, nearly a third of those resulted in injury, with less than one percent of total crashes resulting in a fatality.

Contributing Factors

In over 40 percent of crashes involving a fatality, alcohol was a contributing factor. However, during the hours of 12:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m., nearly 77 percent of fatal crashes involved alcohol use. Most of the car accidents occur on Saturdays and Sundays during these times. This three-hour period has proved to be the deadliest period all day.

Accidents involving fatalities do not necessarily mean that it involved another vehicle. Nearly 57 percent of all fatal crashes involved only one vehicle. One-vehicle accidents are the most common type of accidents in which someone needs medical assistance. Nearly 30 percent of all accidents reported to the police did not involve another vehicle.

Speed is another factor when dealing with crash fatalities. More than half of all fatal crashes occurred on roads with posted speed limits of over 55 mph. While only 20 percent of crashes that occurred on these roads were "property-damage-only" crashes.

Victims

Victims in a fatal car crash are commonly children under the age of 15. The most surprising part of it is that these children are not necessarily inside the vehicle during the accident. Over 80 percent of the children under the age of 15 that were victims of an auto accident who died were either pedestrians or pedal cyclists who were struck by drunk drivers. In fact, nearly 20 percent of all children killed were victims of alcohol-related crashes.