Last year, 2021, was a bad year for traffic crashes and fatalities in Franklin County. Whereas our county fatalities average three to four during the five-year period 2015 through 2020, in 2021, 11 people died in fatal car crashes.

Our county Traffic Safety Board enforcement coordinator, Scott Premo, crunched some numbers to see just what the statistics might reveal.

The largest number of both crashes, and fatalities were in the 30-39 age group, with 21% of all crashes (337) and 55% of the fatalities (4). This group was followed closely by drivers in their 20s, with 20% of all crashes (312) and one fatality. In third place were drivers in their 40s, with 16% of the crashes (247) and one fatality.

Interestingly, while we often hear about older drivers having many crashes, in Franklin County in 2021, drivers 70 and over had the lowest percentage of crashes at about 7.5% (120). However, older drivers generally drive fewer miles per year than younger drivers. This age group also had one fatality.

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Crashes by month

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In Franklin County, in 2021, November and December were the months with the highest crash rate. November, with 158 crashes and 12.5% of the total annual crashes was the highest followed closely by December, with 12%. I shouldn’t speculate (that should be done by the experts), but these two months are basically the first months of winter driving conditions and are two of the darkest months of the year. Furthermore, many people are driving for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, thus it is realistic that these would rank high for crashes.

The safest month was April, with only 4.75% of the crashes followed by February, with 5.55%. This makes sense as February has only 28 days.

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Day of the week and time

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Breaking down the 2021 crashes by day of the week and time of day is interesting. I would have thought late Friday or Saturday would have ranked highest for crashes but that wasn’t true. The most dangerous day was Thursday with 207 crashes followed by Friday and Wednesday with 198 and 197 respectively. The safest day was Sunday with only 148 crashes.

The time period with the most crashes by far was 3-6 p.m. for five of the seven days. Noon to 3 p.m. and 3-9 a.m. also ranked relatively high in crashes.

All this statistical information doesn’t mean much other than being of interest. Crashes happen because of driver error and not just because of day of the week or time of day. Driver age does make a difference but may depend on more on experience (or lack of it) and driver attitude.