The 100 Deadliest Days is the time between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend in Idaho when there is a rise in risky driving behavior.
Over the summer, the Idaho Transportation Department counted 82 traffic deaths. That’s down from 2023, when it recorded 93 deaths – the highest in a decade.
ITD spokesperson Ellen Mattila says traffic deaths spike during this time of year.
“When it's bright and sunny out, we're maybe not as on guard as when we're driving in the winter. The other side of that is that behavior is really in our control. We can't really control the weather, but we can control how we behave behind the wheel,” Mattila said.
The department lists 10 factors for crashes, such as speeding, failing to yield and not paying attention. However, Mattila says that impaired driving without wearing a seatbelt is the main fatal factor during this time of the year.
Ada, Canyon and Kootenai counties have a lot of crashes because of their high population rates, but Mattila says that rural counties also have high rates of driving fatalities.
“We see more of those constellations of behaviors like impaired driving, no seatbelt, things like that. So single vehicle crashes where the driver was impaired and not wearing their seatbelt are really common in rural parts of Idaho,” Mattila said.
She says over the past five years, there have been more than 100,000 crashes involving Idaho drivers, which make up the vast majority of incidents in the state.
