Nearly 2000 people die and over 135,000 people are injured each year due to car accidents on icy and snowy roads.
Driving during the winter is particularly dangerous because of black ice. Black ice is often a transparent coating of ice, found especially on a road or other paved surface, and it is nearly invisible to the human eye when driving. Other dangers include sudden heavy snow storms that affect road visibility and damp sleet that turns the roads both icy and slippery.
- About 17% of car accidents occur in snowy conditions (FHWA).
- Over 1,800 people die per year due to driving in snowy and icy conditions (FHA).
- 156,164 auto crashes occur annually due to icy roads, federal data shows (FHWA).
- Driving on snowy roads can take your car 10 times longer to stop completely (AAA).
- 70% of roads in the United States are in snowy areas, which increases the threat of an accident significantly(FHWA).