DENVER (KDVR) — Hopefully June acts like previous years in terms of fatal and serious car crashes after one woman died and 12 were injured when a car struck a elk in Castle Pines early June 7.
The Colorado Department of Transportation releases annual data on statewide crashes but does not keep up-to-date totals. The City of Denver, however, does. Data Desk used these records to serve as a stand-in for statewide driving patterns.
Typically, traffic accidents don’t reach their highest monthly totals until late summer and early fall. September was the month with the highest amount of serious and fatal crashes in all but one year between 2013 and now.
Between 2013 and the present, most serious accidents happen between Independence Day and Halloween – heavy vacation months.
In those years September has seen 323 fatal or serious crashes on average, October and July both have 281 and August 280.
June is at the other end of the spectrum.
June has seen 248 fatal or serious crashes since 2013, the fourth-lowest month on the calendar. Only the low-mileage winter months December-February have fewer.
Most years follow a general pattern – lower crash totals in winter months that climb into summer and peak in the early fall before falling again with the snow.