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Keep Your Family Safe on the Roads This Holiday Season

As Thanksgiving approaches and the holidays are just around the bend, families across the country and the state are coming together to enjoy each other’s company, to give thanks, and to celebrate family. That said, while Thanksgiving can be a great holiday, it also results in a spike in wrongful death cases around the country. In fact, this spike in fatal accidents will stay high throughout the winter and only start to go down again in spring.

There are many reasons that deaths are higher around the holidays

In general, the holidays have the highest death rates all around, not just in accidents. In some cases, this is due to the higher risk of flu, infections, and other contagious diseases that can affect people who deal with severe weather. There are another two types of accidents that generally rise around the holidays: Heart attacks and car accidents.

Reasons for an increase in the number of heart attacks around the holidays

The reason that there are more heart attacks around the holidays aren’t particularly surprising. Generally, people are eating even more salty and greasy food than normal. People also tend to drink a lot more alcohol around the holidays. Finally, it’s common for people to feel stressed out about family issues over the holidays, and stress is a huge factor in heart attacks.

Reasons for the increase in car accidents around the holidays

Thanksgiving is a particularly dangerous time drive. Consider that just a few years ago in 2012, 764 fatal crashes occurred over the Thanksgiving holiday. There were another 50,000+ non-fatal accidents as well. According to a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 40% of passengers who died during that time were killed in crashes that involved drunk driving. In many cases, said drunk driving took place after a holiday or football party.

Unusual weather can also affect car accidents

Even though those of us lucky enough to live in Southern California don’t typically have to deal with snow, ice, and slush, there can be weather-related issues that affect our roads. When you have people from out of town or out of state driving on winding roads, getting through intense traffic patterns, or driving rental cars they’re not used to, it’s easy to see how accidents could happen.

Consult with an attorney if you’re injured as a result of an accident around the holidays

If you get injured in a car accident or any other type of accident around the holidays, make sure to consider contacting a personal injury attorney. At Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas, we can’t assist people in every accident, but those who were injured as a result of a person or entity’s recklessness or negligence should call us immediately at 909-982-0707.

We’ll give you a free legal consultation during which we can give you an honest opinion about your options and your best way forward. Now is the time to find out what you can do. You’re not in this alone – we can help.