Tennessee drivers who got into car accidents in the last several weeks should know they are not alone. In fact, going by statistics, the stress of the holidays results in many people driving more aggressively than usual, and in turn, more accidents occur.
According to State Farm Insurance, there is a spike in aggression around the holidays. In fact, 32 percent of drivers are more likely to get aggressive over the holiday season.
The reason behind this seems pretty straight-forward, with Jonathan Adkins, the deputy executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, pointing to the holiday stress in people's lives spilling over into their driving habits too.
“The pressure of the holiday, the pressure of having to find something and running all over to find it and all of those things would tend to distract them,” said David Brown, a university professor who has spent time studying holiday traffic.
The numbers from the Highway Loss Data Institute also point to a 20 percent increase in insurance claims for the month of December. And, as Brown points out, the number of accidents may actually be higher as many fender-benders in parking lots go unreported.
At this point though, the frenzy of the holidays has finally come to a close. However, for those who recently were involved in car accidents, now may be the time to take action. For while most people can relate to holiday stress, this stress is still not an excuse for distracted or aggressive driving that puts others at risk.