The roads in and around New Orleans are dangerous at any time of day. It only takes a momentary lapse in judgment or focus on the part of a driver for catastrophe to occur. There are certain times when crash risk is higher, such as when the weather is terrible.
High winds and wet roads tend to have a negative impact on people’s ability to drive safely. However, there don’t need to be unusual circumstances for people to get into a crash. During the average day, there are actually specific times when more crashes occur than at other times. Researchers looking at collision reports, thankfully, are in a position to identify the most dangerous times of day to be on the road.
Late night and late afternoon are high-risk times
According to an analysis of crashes in 2022 provided by Louisiana State University, the most dangerous times of day around New Orleans include the late afternoon hours through the early morning. When looking at how many of deadly crashes in the state occurred at certain times, specific hours had higher risk than others.
The hours between 4 pm and 8 pm each saw roughly 5% of the deadly crashes in the state. The rate of deadly crashes surges between 8 pm and 9 pm, with more than 7% of the fatalities occurring during that hour. Between 9 pm and 1 am, each hour hovers around 5%. 2 am to 3 am also saw 5% of the deadly crashes in 2022, and then rates dropped to between 3 and 4% for the morning and early afternoon.
What does this mean for motorists?
Regardless of someone’s lifestyle, it is nearly impossible to consistently avoid being on the road during the afternoon rush hour and any time after until the early morning hours. But, drivers may want to reduce how much time they are on the road during those high-risk times, and they may also want to redouble their focus on safety when they know that their collision risk is higher than average.
