The Fourth of July Is America’s Deadliest Driving Holiday. Here’s Where Every State Ranks.
A new MoneyGeek analysis of five years of federal crash data ranks all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. by how deadly their roads are over the July 4 holiday — and the results upend the usual assumptions. The most dangerous states are not the big-city, gridlocked ones. They are wide-open, low-traffic states in the rural West and South.
The Fourth also carries a grim distinction: nearly four in ten drivers killed over the holiday were legally drunk — the highest impaired-driver share of any major American holiday. Across 2020–2024, roughly 2,720 people died in July 4 holiday crashes.
New York lands in the safer half, at 39th of 51 — but 84 people still died on its roads over those five holidays. With a record 72 million Americans expected to travel this week, here is where every state stands, why the ranking looks the way it does, and how not to become a statistic.
- 2,720killedpeople died in July 4 holiday crashes over five years, 2020–2024 — NHTSA FARS via MoneyGeek
- 38%drunkof drivers killed over the Fourth were legally impaired — the highest share of any major U.S. holiday — NHTSA
- 410forecasttraffic deaths projected for this Independence Day period, 2026 (90% CI 351–472) — National Safety Council
- 72.2MtravelingAmericans expected to travel over July 4th week — a record, 61.4M of them by car — AAA
More Americans die on the road over Independence Day than over any other holiday, and the reason is a lethal overlap: the most travel-heavy weekend of summer collides with the most alcohol-soaked. Over the five most recent years of final federal data, 2020 through 2024, roughly 2,720 people were killed in crashes during the July 4 holiday period. In 2024 alone, 579 people died.
The signature of the holiday is impairment. According to NHTSA, 38 percent of drivers killed over the Fourth were legally drunk — the highest impaired-driver share of any major U.S. holiday. The clock matters too: about 23 percent of holiday driving deaths fall between 9 p.m. and midnight, the single deadliest window, when fireworks are over, the cookout has been going for hours, and people head home.
To compare states fairly, MoneyGeek did not simply count bodies — a big state will always rack up more raw deaths than a small one. Instead it measured fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled over the holiday period, an exposure-adjusted rate that asks how dangerous each mile driven actually is. By that measure, the deadliest state to drive on the Fourth is North Dakota, at 0.283 deaths per 100 million miles — even though it recorded just 15 holiday deaths across the five years.
2020–2024
The metric: fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled during the July 4 holiday period — not raw deaths. That is why tiny North Dakota (15 deaths) out-ranks Texas or California, which log hundreds of raw deaths but spread them across vastly more driving.
The window: 6 p.m. the day before the observed holiday through 5:59 a.m. the day after.
The spread: North Dakota’s holiday fatality rate runs more than seven times higher than Rhode Island’s, the safest state.
The counterintuitive lesson of the ranking is that danger tracks rural exposure, not city congestion. The deadliest states cluster in the open West and South — North Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, South Dakota, Alabama, Kentucky. The safest are dense, small Northeastern states. Rhode Island finishes dead last for danger, at 51st, with just two holiday deaths and a rate of 0.039.
The reasons are structural. Rural highways carry higher speeds, so a crash that would be a fender-bender in stop-and-go city traffic becomes fatal at 70 miles per hour. Seat-belt use tends to be lower. And when a serious crash does happen far from a hospital, the emergency response and transport time can be the difference between an injury and a death. Big-city gridlock is miserable, but slow, crowded roads are survivable roads.
“North Dakota's holiday fatality rate runs more than seven times higher than Rhode Island's — the safest state in the country to drive on the Fourth.”
MoneyGeek · analysis of NHTSA FARS + FHWA data, 2020–2024
Drunk driving amplifies the same geography. The highest impaired-driver shares over the holiday show up in Arkansas and South Carolina (53 percent each), Iowa (51 percent), and Oregon and Connecticut (50 percent each). The lowest are in Mississippi (18 percent), New Jersey (24 percent), and New York (25 percent) — which is exactly where the story turns to the Empire State.
The reassuring headline for New Yorkers: the state sits in the safer half, 39th of 51, with a holiday fatality rate of 0.126 — less than half North Dakota’s. New York also has one of the lowest drunk-driver shares in the nation, at 25 percent. Dense traffic, lower speeds, and heavy enforcement all push the numbers down.
But 39th is not zero. Over the five holidays, 84 people died on New York roads, 47 of them drivers. And the state’s deadliest hours mirror the national pattern — the late-evening stretch after the fireworks. That is why New York runs a statewide high-visibility crackdown around the holiday, funded through the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee and staffed by the New York State Police: DWI checkpoints, dedicated impaired-driving patrols, and unmarked Concealed Identity Traffic Enforcement vehicles watching for distracted and speeding drivers.
The enforcement is not for show. Over the 2025 Fourth of July detail, July 3–6, New York troopers issued 10,497 tickets, made 210 DWI arrests, and investigated 716 crashes — five of them fatal. A safer-than-average state can still lose lives in a single weekend.
The exposure this year is unprecedented. AAA projects a record 72.2 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home over the July 4th week, June 27 through July 5 — edging past last year’s record of 71.8 million. The overwhelming majority, 61.4 million, or 85 percent of travelers, will go by car. More cars on the road for more miles means more exposure, which is the raw material of the crash statistics.
“For many Americans, traveling the week of July 4th is tradition.”
Stacey Barber · Vice President, AAA Travel · June 2026
A record 72.2 million people are expected to travel this Independence Day week — 61.4 million of them by car. Plan ahead, build in extra time, and always designate a sober driver. #July4th
The National Safety Council’s own forecast puts hard numbers on the risk. For the 2026 Independence Day period — 6 p.m. Thursday, July 2 through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, July 5, a 3.25-day window — the NSC estimates roughly 410 traffic deaths, with a 90 percent confidence range of 351 to 472, plus some 46,700 nonfatal, medically consulted injuries. Last year’s comparable estimate was 437. The Council projects that seat belts will save an estimated 154 lives over the period, and that another 100 lives could be saved if everyone buckled up.
The federal advice for the holiday is unglamorous and effective. NHTSA — the U.S. Department of Transportation agency that runs the “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” and “Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving” campaigns, now led by Administrator Jonathan Morrison, confirmed by the Senate in September 2025 — issued its Fourth of July advisory on June 29 with a simple message: plan a sober ride before the first drink, buckle up on every trip, and watch the late-evening hours.
This Fourth of July, celebrate safely: if you're drinking, don't drive. Buzzed driving is drunk driving. Plan a sober ride home, buckle up every time, and help everyone get home. #DriveSober
The practical checklist is short. Designate a sober driver or line up a ride before the celebration starts, not after. Wear a seat belt on every trip, no matter how short — it is the single most effective thing a passenger can do. If you are hosting, take keys from anyone who has been drinking. And if you can, avoid the 9 p.m.-to-midnight window when the risk peaks. None of this is new, and all of it works: the difference between the deadliest states and the safest is, in the end, largely a difference in how many of these small choices get made.
The Fourth of July is the deadliest driving holiday of the year, and the danger is heaviest where you might least expect it — the open, low-traffic highways of the rural West and South, not the big-city gridlock.
New York sits comfortably in the safer half at 39th, with one of the lowest drunk-driving shares in the country. But 84 New Yorkers still died over five holidays, and a record 72 million Americans are on the move this week.
The math of the holiday is exposure plus impairment. You can’t change how many people are on the road. You can control the seat belt, the sober driver, and the late-night drive home.
