Minnehaha County Car Crashes: By the Numbers

Digging into the County Crash Annual Report Archive from the South Dakota Department of Public Safety can give you a picture of what's happening on the roads in Minnehaha County.

The numbers are for 2015, and you learn the a driver in Minnehaha County is most likely to be involved in an accident while driving a car, at 5:00 PM on a Friday in November. The cause of the accident will most likely be a failure to yield and there will be no injuries.

• Besides failure to yield, the top Driver Contributing Circumstances of accidents were Following too close, speeding, turning or lane changing, and something to to with a traffic signal. In 2015 there were 360 crashed attributed to distracted driving and 37 directly related to an electronic device like a phone.
• As far as weather goes most accidents happened on a dry street during a clear day. However, snowy and slushy roads were the next most common weather conditions during a crash.
• The morning and afternoon rush-hours were the most likely times of the day for a crash. Followed by the times schools let out and lunchtime.
• Most accidents last year resulted in no injuries, there were however ten fatalities.
• April had the least number of accidents. It's not a surprise that the snowy months of November, December and January had the most.
• Friday and Tuesday were the worst days. Sunday was the best.
• The estimated total property damage from accidents in 2015 was $24,883,932.00