March 8, 2022 – According to an article on Bankrate.com, bad driving in bad weather can lead to bad results. Here are 10 stats about bad weather:
- Each year, 75% of weather-related vehicle crashes occur on wet pavement and 47% happen during rainfall. (FHWA road management)
- Nearly 5,700 people are killed and more than 544,700 people are injured in crashes on wet pavement annually. Over 3,400 people are killed and over 357,300 people are injured in crashes during rainfall. (FHWA road management)
- Using road salt reduces crashes on four-lane roads by 93%. (highways.org)
- 544 million vehicle-hours of delay per year are due to snow, ice and fog. This is nearly one-quarter of all non-recurrent delays. (highways.org)
- There were 325,510 flood-damaged cars on the road in 2017 – a 20% increase from the previous year. (Carfax)
- Fog was a factor in nearly 20% of deadly multi car pile-ups involving 10 or more vehicles, according to a 2017 study. (NYT)
- A good set of winter tires usually costs between $500 to $1,000. (Business Insider)
- During heavy to moderate rain, the automatic emergency braking safety system failed 33% of the time and lane keep assist, 69%. (AAA)
- When driving on wet roads, reduce speed by half. On snow-packed roads, travel at one-third the normal speed. (FMCSA)
- While fog causes the fewest number of accidents when compared to other weather-related events at just 3%, it causes 9% of fatalities in weather-related crashes. (FHWA road management)
While aggregates operations are mostly off-road, it never hurts to re-evaluate driving habits and behaviors, especially to and from work. Stay safe out there.