Car accidents in Arizona are common. In fact, according to the Department of Transportation, every year, we see about 100,000 car accidents (or more) which means that there’s approximately 300 car accidents every day across Arizona. So we could say that chances of car accidents in Arizona are pretty high, but of course that’s not always the same every time during the day.

Chances of car accidents in Arizona – the statistics

Every year, the DOT in Arizona publishes a detailed report and statistics on motor vehicle accidents. According to one of the previous reports, there were almost 110 thousand motor vehicle accidents. From that number about 75 thousand resulted ONLY in property damage, 34 thousand resulted in injuries and 708 resulted in death. To summarize:

• 70% of accidents caused only property damage
• 31% caused personal injury and
• 65% were fatal car accidents.

Naturally, these numbers fluctuate one year to another and sometimes chances of car accidents can be greater, and sometimes can be lower.. Some of them go up and some of them go down. But today we are focused on chances of a car accident and what can make it more or less likely to happen.

Time, day and weather – They all influence the possibility of a car accident

We would naturally assume that areas which are densely populated have much higher chances of a car accident, merely because they have a lot more motor vehicles, cyclists, motorcyclists etc. But that assumption isn’t entirely true and correct. Now even thought that the number of injuries occurred in urban areas is greater than those in rural areas, the interesting fact is that there’s no noticeable difference in the number of fatal car accidents between the two areas. So urban areas can produce several times more injuries, but they don’t produce as many times more fatal car accidents than rural areas. Many think that chances of car accidents are far greater if the weather conditions aren’t ideal e.g., when it’s raining or snowing. But that’s also not true. In most cases, they happen in ideal weather conditions. This can be contributed to two things. First is the climate of Arizona. Most parts of the country get very little amounts of rain throughout the year (about 8 inches) and the second is that drivers are very easily lulled into a false sense of security by good weather conditions. People are more careful about their driving when the weather is bad, they pay more attention to the speed limit and ongoing traffic. But when the weather is ideal, they are more relaxes, less cautious and so chances of car accidents go up. This is also proven by the fact that most car accidents happen during the daytime and less during dawn/dusk or nigh time. So statistically speaking, chances of car accidents are more likely when you least expect them i.e. during the day. Now that we narrowed it down to a specific time of day, let’s be more specific. The most car accidents happen between 5PM and 6PM while the least number of accidents happen from 3AM and 4AM and this is no surprise. The greater number of car accidents happen during rush hour when people are heading home from work and the roads are filled with cars. Opposed to this is the time when roads are practically empty (during the night). If you or your loved one were involved in a car accident in Arizona, or your family member was a victim of a wrongful death after the accident, there might be a chance to receive compensations for injuries sustained, pain and suffering, medical bills and financial losses due to the accident. Make sure that you contact our attorneys to review your case and to potentially represent you.