Alabama Car Accident Data - is it Just the Weather?

According to Yellowhammer News and Safewise, a national data organization, Alabama car accidents fatality rate for car crashes is 21.3 deaths per 100,000 people – a rate second only to Mississippi, and over twice the national average (11.6 deaths per 100,000 people).

In a state where the population is 4.88 million, that means 1,038 people are expected to die in Alabama this year in car accidents.

Why is our rate so high? Yellowhammer News explains the phenomenon with two observations:

1. Alabama, along with Mississippi, does not have a statewide law banning handheld cell phones while driving.
2. Drivers in Alabama are more distracted; police have issued just 38 tickets per 100,000 for texting and driving. New York’s death rate is just 5.2 per 100,000 people and they issued 11,996 tickets per 100,000 people for texting and driving.

The conclusion is that tougher laws and their enforcement are both needed to make roads safer for Alabama drivers and passengers.

Case in point: the minimum fine for texting and driving in Alabama is just $25 per ticket. That’s one of the lowest rates in the nation, above only a few states that have no texting and driving laws.

Alabama’s high rate of auto accidents may be partly attributed to the lack of many safety laws that exist in other states. When this is coupled with the increasing rate of distracted drivers on the road, it unfortunately leads to disaster for many Alabamian families every year.