Lives are at stake every time a driver goes too fast, drives drunk, or drives while distracted. But which of these potentially fatal habits does most damage?
Using NHTSA data, this study from Utah car accident lawyer Siegfried & Jensen ranks those common reckless driving behaviors by fatality rate per crash, age groups of those typically involved, and the states struggling most with each.
Reckless Driving Behaviors in America
Nationally, drunk driving is currently the biggest issue when we consider fatal road accident statistics. According to the NHTSA’s official BAC classification, of 2024’s 39,254 recorded traffic fatalities, drunk driving claimed 11,904 (30.3%) lives.
Speeding is another highly significant road fatality issue. Of the 2024 road fatality total, speeding was a factor in 11,288 deaths, 28.8% of the national total.
Additionally, distracted driving was tied to 3,207 fatalities, 8.2% of all traffic deaths, less than a third of the number of fatalities due to drunk driving or speeding.
Crash counts tell a similar story, with speeding a factor in 10,203 crashes, drunk driving the cause of an estimated 9,960, and distracted driving was a factor in 2,954 fatal crashes.
These fatality and crash counts contradict the idea that road safety is primarily a technology and distraction problem in the age of the smartphone. Drunk driving and speeding are still the leading contributors to traffic fatalities, following decades of public awareness campaigns, sobriety checkpoints, and speed enforcement efforts that target both factors. Meanwhile, of all three factors, distraction remains by far the least significant.
Significant disparities also prevail when we assess individual states regarding the main road fatality danger factor: drunk driving.
The Worst States for Drunk Driving
Montana is the leading U.S. state when it comes to both drunk driving and speeding, with 11.36 drunk driving deaths per 100,000 residents and 7.78 speeding deaths per 100,000. Those rates are 3.26 and 2.36 times their respective national averages (3.48 and 3.30 per 100,000). That combination hints at potential structural issues in Montana, in particular, higher rural speed limits and comparatively long distances between law enforcement checkpoints.
South Carolina also ranks in the top three for both speeding fatalities (7.04 per 100,000) and deaths caused by drunk driving (7.04), yet ranks just 34th for distracted driving (0.56 per 100,000).
Beyond Montana and South Carolina, the drunk driving ranking list is dominated by the South and rural Mountain West, including South Dakota (6.63 deaths per 100,000), Wyoming (6.28), and Louisiana (6.06).
For speeding fatalities, the pattern is similar. Montana and Wyoming are again both near the top of the ranking table, with South Carolina (7.04), New Mexico (6.96), and North Carolina (6.04) completing the top five.
By comparison, distracted driving statistics are distinct. New Mexico leads with 7.48 deaths per 100,000, nearly eight times the national average (0.94). Louisiana follows (4.76), with Kentucky, Hawaii, and Kansas completing the top five.
The fact that there’s only minimal overlap between the distracted-driving ranking and the other two lists is notable. While Oklahoma and Missouri feature in the top ten across all three categories, states such as New Mexico and Hawaii rank highly for distraction yet are not among the leading states for drunk driving and speeding.
Much more clear-cut is the age group most affected by all three categories.
The Age Groups Most Affected
When measured per 100,000 residents, the 21-24 year-old age group is subject to the highest fatality rate across all three reckless driving behaviors. Their drunk driving rate is 8.95 deaths per 100,000 residents, which is clearly ahead of the 25-34 (7.24) and 35-44 (5.70) groups. 21-24 year-olds also recorded the highest speeding fatality rate (9.29 per 100,000), and their distracted driving fatality rate (1.89 per 100,000) was ahead of second-placed 25-34 year-olds (1.58).
No other age group leads the rankings for more than one behavior, clearly making the 21-24 year-old group the highest-risk per-capita age range. In some cases, the gap between this group and some others emphasizes its placement. For example, its drunk driving fatality rate is over 5.5 times that of the 65-74 year-old group, while its speeding fatality rate is nearly seven times higher than the 55-64 year-old group.
The under-16 age group sits at the bottom of every ranking list if we measure them against total resident population: just 0.15 per 100,000 for speeding, 0.02 for drunk driving, and 0.03 for distracted driving.
That said, the group’s population (around 65 million Americans) includes infants, toddlers, and children, many of whom are not of driving age. As a result, this bracket’s raw fatality counts (99 speeding deaths, 15 drunk driving deaths, and 17 distracted driving deaths) realistically represent a small section of that age group.
In terms of raw fatality numbers, the 25-34 year-old group accounts for the largest fatality counts of any age group for both drunk driving (3,292) and speeding (3,016), roughly double the number of the 16-20 year-old bracket.
However, from a per-capita perspective, 25-34 year-olds rank second for both behaviors. The fact that the 25-34 age-group population numbers are much larger than the 21-24 year-old numbers (45.5 million compared with 17.2 million) explains its higher raw count.
The same group also posts the highest raw number of distracted driving fatalities (719 deaths), more than double the 335 recorded by the 16-20 year-old group.
Fatality rates steadily decline from the 45-54 year-old group to the 65-74 year-old group, with drunk driving (from 3.88 per 100,000 to 1.62), speeding (from 2.93 to 1.35), and distracted driving (from 0.95 to 0.74) all falling significantly.
And for raw counts, the same trend applies: drunk driving fatalities fall from 1,583 to 540; speeding fatalities fall from 1,197 to 451; and distracted driving fatalities fall from 387 to 247.
There’s an interesting anomaly regarding distracted driving. It’s the only reckless driving behavior category to reverse a gradual downward course among the oldest drivers, and actually rises to 0.91 per 100,000 for the 75 and older group, from 0.74 for the 65-74 year-old bracket.
Speeding and drunk driving rates continue to decline through the oldest age brackets. The 75 and older group posts the lowest drunk driving rate among adults of driving age in the dataset (0.79 per 100,000) and the second-lowest speeding rate (1.35, tied with the 65-74 year-old group).
The Vehicles That Best Protect Occupants
Fatal crashes with survivors let us measure something specific: what led some occupants to survive when others in the same crash didn’t. This distinction isolates how well a vehicle protects its occupants during the very worst collisions, as opposed to how likely a vehicle is to be involved in a crash.
Pickups feature one of the lowest occupant fatality rates among common vehicle types (14.88%), which means around 1 in 7 occupants in a pickup that was involved in a fatal crash died. Minivans (15.34%) and SUVs (15.87%) also feature relatively low occupant fatality rates.
For sedans, the fatality rate is a little higher (17.75%), meaning their occupants face a worse survival outlook than those in pickups, SUVs, or minivans. Crossovers (18.65%) feature a slightly worse fatality rate than SUVs, suggesting that size and mass still matter, even within similar vehicle categories.
Yet the clearest divide is between enclosed passenger vehicles and those that offer less protection to occupants. For example, convertibles feature a 27.36% fatality rate (which is nearly double the pickup rate), while hatchbacks (23.18%) and wagons (22.90%) fare significantly better, and coupes (21.12%) feature a higher rate than every larger vehicle type.
Motorcycles represent a completely different level of occupant risk. Fatality rates range from 66.37% (standard motorcycles) to 93.81% (street motorcycles), meaning the vast majority of occupants in a fatal motorcycle crash don’t survive. Their rates are between four and six times higher than for enclosed vehicle fatal crashes.
Across all motorcycle subtypes, the combined fatality rate is 85.15%, compared with between 15% and 27% for enclosed passenger vehicles, heavily emphasizing the value of an enclosed cabin, irrespective of size or price differential.
To the question of whether expensive cars protect occupants better than cheaper ones, the data offers a partial yes, despite one important methodological caveat.
Although price and MSRP are not part of this comparison, vehicles are nonetheless grouped by make into luxury and mass-market groups (based on standard industry positioning). The luxury tier includes brands like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Audi, Tesla, and Lincoln, while the mass-market tier includes Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Honda, and Dodge.
By this comparison, luxury vehicles post a 14.69% occupant fatality rate for fatal crashes, whereas for mass-market vehicles, the rate is 18.61%. This means that luxury-branded vehicle occupants were around 21% less likely to die in a crash that had already involved someone else’s death.
The gap likely reflects factors beyond price, such as the fact that luxury vehicles in this comparison were more likely to be newer and to include advanced safety features as standard. So the finding should be considered a brand-tier comparison, not a strict dollar-for-dollar price effect.
Despite this qualification, the 21% difference is significant and covers almost 44,000 vehicles, a sizable comparative sample.
Key Recurring Factors in Drunk Driving
Drunk driving fatalities are heavily concentrated in the late evening and very early morning hours. The 9 pm to midnight window accounts for 2,693 deaths (the highest of any three-hour period), followed by midnight to 3 am (2,514) and 6 pm to 9 pm (2,170). Together, those three windows account for 7,377 deaths, 62% of the national total, which means nearly two-thirds of the fatalities occur between 6 pm and 3 am.
There’s a notable gap between the deadliest and safest periods. The 9 am to noon window features just 459 drunk driving deaths, which means the 9 pm to midnight window is nearly six times as deadly.
Speeding follows a similar but less severe pattern, peaking from 9 pm to midnight (1,953 deaths), just ahead of 6 pm to 9 pm (1,934). The speeding lull comes from 9 am to noon (912 deaths), around half the overnight peak. Unlike with drunk driving, speeding fatalities remain elevated through the afternoon, reaching 1,659 from 3 pm to 6 pm, indicative of a gradual rise from the afternoon commute to the nighttime peak.
Distracted driving fatalities observe different patterns, peaking from 3 pm to 6 pm (541 deaths), followed by 6 pm to 9 pm (506). Fatalities remain steady throughout the day, with a low of 216 between 3 am and 6 am, which is still more than a third of the peak. The distracted driving range of around 2.5-to-1 is much narrower than the almost 6-to-1 range for drunk driving.
The day-of-week breakdown reinforces the weekend pattern for both drunk driving and speeding, with Saturday the deadliest day for both (2,701 drunk driving fatalities and 2,209 speeding fatalities), followed by Sunday (2,583 and 1,988). Combined, the two weekend days feature 44.4% of drunk driving deaths and 37.2% of speeding deaths.
Wednesday is the safest day for both driver behaviors (1,165 drunk driving deaths and 1,313 speeding deaths). Drunk driving fatalities rise every day from Wednesday to Saturday, increasing gradually from 1,165 to 1,303, 1,787, and 2,701.
Distracted driving again follows a different pattern, peaking on Friday (522 deaths), with Saturday not too far behind (517). Its weekly variation is considerably narrower: Friday’s peak is about 28% above Tuesday’s low of 406, compared with roughly 68% for speeding and 132% for drunk driving. The consistency for both daily and weekly patterns suggests distracted driving fatalities are more closely tied to general driving routines than one specific high-risk period.
Utah’s drunk driving and speeding data closely mirror national patterns, with risk especially high during the evening and on weekends. The 6 pm to 9 pm window is the state’s deadliest (and averages 19 fatalities per hour), compared with 8.33 per hour from midnight to 3 am. In terms of hours, 8 pm to 9 pm is the deadliest single hour (24 fatalities).
Utah’s weekly pattern continues the trend. Saturday and Sunday tie for the deadliest day (49 fatalities each), compared with 33 on the safest day, Wednesday (a 48% gap between the weekly high and low).
Overall, the patterns indicate two distinct forms of risk. Drunk driving and speeding peak both at night and over the weekend, whereas distracted driving follows ordinary daytime and commute patterns, and remains steady through the week.
Familiar Patterns and Targeted Interventions
With the help of 2024 NHTSA data, this study can confirm that drunk driving and speeding account for the largest U.S. traffic fatality shares. That said, risks vary substantially by state, age, vehicle type, and time of day (weekday vs. weekend). Vehicle type can significantly affect whether occupants survive a crash, and enclosed vehicles show substantially lower occupant fatality rates than motorcycles.
As ever, targeted interventions are key in order to better protect vulnerable groups (in this case, young drivers on weekends) for maximum safety benefits.
We can help you with your car accident claim. Siegfried & Jensen’s Utah car accident lawyers understand the complex laws and how to navigate them to your advantage. We also know the tactics insurance companies use to avoid paying claims, and we won’t let them get away with paying you less than you deserve.