The StoryMapBy The NumbersData
 
HOW WE DID THIS PROJECT
- With 110 deaths, 2005 was the deadliest year on our local roads in the past dozen years.
- Three days of the week – Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays – accounted for almost half of all the deaths that occurred in that 12-year period. (48 percent, or 495 deaths)
- The deadliest time of day: 1-5 p.m.
-From 1994-2005, a total of 1,037 people were killed, 10 percent of them pedestrians.
- THE SUMMER months of July and August were the deadliest time of the year, accounting for 21.3 percent of fatalities; followed closely by the holiday months of November and December, which accounted for 20 percent.
- Of those deadly summer months, crashes on Route 17 claimed more lives than any other local roadway (22 of 57 fatalities that occurred in July and August).
- Just over half of those 22 deaths on Route 17 happened from 1:15 to 4 p.m., Fridays through Sundays, when the Catskills-bound and returning summer traffic is at its peak.
- Of the 774 cases where information was recorded about passengers and drivers killed in car crashes, half were found to be wearing safety belts and half were not.
- Speeding was the No. 1, most-cited driver-related cause of fatal crashes, followed by: running off the road, not staying in a lane, inattention, water, snow or oil, and drowsy driving.
Chris Mele
BY THE NUMBERS
The following highlights are from an analysis of federal data on fatal crashes from 1994 to 2005 that occurred in Ulster, Sullivan and Orange counties and the section of the New York State Thruway in Rockland County. The analysis, drawn from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, includes local community roads as well as major highways and interstates.
NUMBER OF FATALITIES BY YEAR
1994..................................... 101
1995....................................... 70
1996....................................... 75
1997....................................... 76
1998....................................... 80
1999....................................... 79
2000....................................... 75
2001....................................... 90
2002....................................... 87
2003..................................... 101
2004....................................... 93
2005..................................... 110
# OF CRASHES/FATALITIES BY MONTH 1994-2005
September......................... 71/79
October............................. 81/86
November........................ 95/102
December........................ 91/104
January.............................. 61/64
February............................ 50/56
March................................ 62/73
April.................................. 69/80
May................................... 77/90
June.................................. 75/83
July................................ 102 /24
NUMBER OF DEATHS BY DAY 1994-2005
Monday  126
Tuesday 136
Wednesday 139
Thursday 141
Friday 154
Saturday 187
Sunday 54