Columbus Day Holiday Weekend 2nd Deadliest On NoVA, DC Roads

WASHINGTON, DC — While it's not a traditional party weekend like July 4 or St. Patrick's Day, the long Columbus Day weekend is one of the deadliest weekends on northern Virginia and District of Columbia roads, as well as nationally. October was the second deadliest month of 2017, AAA Mid-Atlantic says.

The weekend's deadliness is only exceeded by the Fourth of July, in terms of the overall number of fatal crashes, according to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System. That might surprise drivers, but Oct. 12-14 is a three-day weekend for the nation’s federal workforce. To help keep the roads safe, law enforcement agencies in several states, including Virginia and the District of Columbia, are stepping up patrols and staging high-visibility enforcement campaigns over the three-day Columbus Day weekend.

With 3,322 crash deaths, October was the second-most deadly month of the year on roadways in the United States during 2017, behind only July fatalities that year, according to statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

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“Over the course of this decade, July, August and October have emerged as the deadliest months of the year, in terms of roadway crashes, deaths and injuries,” said John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s manager of public and government affairs, in a news release. “October has overtaken August as the second deadliest month of the year for the occurrence of fatal motor vehicle crashes on roadways in the United States.”

The Columbus Day weekend is a dangerous time to travel the Interstate 95 corridor, and along other roadways across the mid-Atlantic states, warn AAA officials. Over the Columbus Day weekend, the Virginia State Police and other local law enforcement agencies, will be on the lookout for drivers who are speeding, distracted, impaired and intoxicated, as well as aggressive.

In Virginia, “more than 80 police agencies, as well as the Virginia State Police, will be on heightened alert” over the Columbus Day holiday weekend, warns the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. “Due to the closure of many schools and businesses on Monday,” meaning Columbus Day, Oct. 14, “families tend to travel,” Virginia DMV officials said.

Columbus Day is one of a federal holiday where government offices are closed, but most businesses remain open.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 29.1 percent of crash fatalities during Columbus Day week involve drinking and driving. That’s the lowest percentage among the federal holidays, and it is below the holiday-related driving and driving crash fatality rate of 32.9 percent.