Thanksgiving Travel: When Are The Roads Most Dangerous?

Like with a lot of other things in life, timing can be very important when it comes to Thanksgiving planning.

More specifically, when is the best time to venture out on the roads for your Turkey Day travel?

A new study by King Stahlman Bail Bonds analyzed fatal crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to pinpoint the specific hour of the day when driving becomes most hazardous, and when it’s safest, in all 50 states.

The study found that 6:00 PM – 6:59 PM is the most dangerous hour nationwide for Thanksgiving driving, with many states showing evening spikes in fatal crashes.

Early morning hours, typically between 12 AM and 4 AM, are consistently the safest time to travel, thanks to lighter traffic and fewer congestion-related collisions.

In South Dakota, starting your holiday journey between Noon and 1:00 PM puts you at the greatest risk, while late-night travel (between Midnight and 1:00 AM has been deemed as the safest.

Experts attribute those midday danger spikes in South Dakota and other rural states to higher speed limits, rural road conditions, and long-distance travel patterns.

Upwards of 73 million Americans are expected to drive this Thanksgiving.

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See the Must-Drive Roads in Every State

Gallery Credit: Sarah Jones

LOOK: Here are the states where you are most likely to hit an animal

Hitting an animal while driving is a frightening experience, and this list ranks all 50 states in order of the likelihood of such incidents happening, in addition to providing tips on how to avoid them.

Gallery Credit: Dom DiFurio & Jacob Osborn

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

Gallery Credit: Sophia Crisafulli

Filed Under: Travel