There were 339 deaths in the second half of the year, compared with 261 in the first half. This is no longer true. This is consistent with information from section II showing that alcohol-related deaths are the lowest they have been in decades. The holiday weekends in 1997 were much safer than usual. On average over the last five years, there was one traffic death every 14.9 hours.
Weekends have more deaths than weekdays.
Holiday weekends, probably due primarily to increased travel volume, normally have still more deaths. The holiday periods for 1992 through 1996 averaged 1 death every 9.6 hours. In 1997 however, there was one death every 14.2 hours during the holidays.