Christmas Day

Christmas Day Holiday Period Estimate for 2023

The National Safety Council (NSC) estimates that 345 people may die on U.S. roads this Christmas Day holiday period. Holidays traditionally are a time of travel for families across the United States. This year’s fatality estimate is nearly identical, 346, to the estimate for Christmas 2022. Many choose car travel, which has the highest fatality rate of any major form of motorized transportation based on fatalities per passenger mile. Holidays are also often cause for celebrations involving alcohol consumption, a major contributing factor to motor-vehicle crashes.

Christmas Day is observed on December 25. The Christmas Day holiday period varies from 1.25 to 4.25 days in length, depending on which day of the week the holiday falls. In 2023, Christmas Day falls on a Monday, so the holiday period is 3.25 days and extends from 6 p.m. Friday, December 22 to 11:59 p.m. Monday, December 25.

Visit the Holiday Introduction page for a list of holiday periods and their definitions.

National Safety Council Estimate

There is uncertainty associated with any estimate. The 90% confidence interval for the estimate of traffic deaths this holiday is 297 to 396. This chart shows NSC Christmas Day holiday fatality estimates and confidence intervals compared to the actual number of deaths. The latest final fatality data available are for 2021. NSC underestimated the actual number of Christmas deaths in 2021 by 1%, falling within the confidence interval.

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Source: Estimates and confidence intervals are calculated by NSC; actual deaths reflect NSC analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data.

 

Injuries

medically consulted injury is an injury serious enough that a medical professional was consulted. Based on the current medically consulted injury to death ratio of 114:1 and rounded to the nearest hundred, the estimate of nonfatal medically consulted injuries that will result from crashes during the holiday period is 39,300, with a 90% confidence interval of 33,900 to 45,100.

Lives saved with seat belts

Studies show seat belts, when used, are 45% effective in preventing fatalities among front-seat passenger car occupants (see note below for more details). An estimated 137 lives may be saved this Christmas Day holiday period because vehicle occupants wear their seat belts. An additional 80 lives could be saved if everyone wears seat belts.

Impaired Driving

Nationwide, alcohol-impaired fatalities (involving blood-alcohol content of 0.08 g/dL or higher) in 2021 (latest available data) represented 31% of the total traffic fatalities. During the 2021 Christmas Day holiday period, 36% of fatalities involved an alcohol-impaired driver. This chart shows the historic trend of the percent of fatalities involving an alcohol-impaired driver.

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Source: NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts Annual Report Tables

Note: Highest blood-alcohol concentration among drivers or motorcycle riders involved in the crash was 0.08 grams per deciliter (g/dL) or higher. The holiday periods used to calculate the percentages conform to the NHTSA holiday period definitions that add another quarter day to the periods used for the NSC estimate.

Although the reduction in the risk of fatal injury from wearing seat belts is higher for light-truck occupants at 50%, the lower figure for passenger car occupants is used in the calculations here as the more conservative measure. The most recent data from FARS indicate that seat belt use by fatally injured passenger car and light truck occupants was 48.6%.

See data details