A Jacoby & Meyers analysis of 204,253 Los Angeles County crashes (2021–2025) reveals that the busiest roads and the deadliest ones rarely share the same clock.
LOS ANGELES, CA — While Los Angeles drivers brace for gridlock at 5 PM, the most dangerous time to be on county roads is the quiet stretch around 2 AM, according to a new analysis of the latest five years of state crash data by personal injury law firm Jacoby & Meyers.
The findings challenge the common assumption that rush hour is the most dangerous time to drive, showing that crash frequency and crash severity follow very different patterns.
The study draws on California’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Record Systems (SWITRS) and examined 204,253 reported crashes in Los Angeles County from 2021 through 2025. Our car accident attorneys found a consistent gap between when crashes happen most and when they turn deadly.
Key findings include:
- 2 AM is the deadliest hour. The 2 AM hour carries a 5.03% fatalities per crash— roughly 1 in 20 crashes — compared with 1.08% at 5 PM. Adjusted for how few cars are on the road, 2 AM is about 1.9× more dangerous than the average hour, and alcohol is involved in 39.4% of crashes then.
- 5 PM has the most crashes. The evening commute produces the highest crash volume (14,908 crashes at 5 PM), but most are lower-speed, survivable collisions.
- Sunday is the deadliest day; Friday the busiest. Friday records the most crashes (32,043), while Sunday has the highest fatalities per crash (2.34%) and the most hit-and-runs.
- October is the peak month. Crashes peak in October (19,188) as the evening commute shifts into darkness. April has the highest fatalities per crash of any month.
- New Year’s Day is the deadliest holiday. It carries a 5.74% fatalities per crash — nearly three times the county baseline — with alcohol involved in 1 in 4 crashes.
- Fog, not rain, is the deadliest weather. Fog carries a 5–7% fatalities per crash in winter months, three to four times the clear-weather rate.
“Many drivers assume the greatest danger comes during rush hour. Our analysis shows the highest fatal crash risk occurs when roads are relatively empty, where speed and impairment become much more significant factors,” said Michael Akiva, Managing Partner of Jacoby & Meyers. “We hope this data helps Angelenos make safer choices about when they get behind the wheel.”
The full Jacoby & Meyers Road Safety Report
, including detailed findings, methodology, charts, and hour-by-hour analysis, is available here: The Most Dangerous Times to Drive in Los Angeles (2025 SWITRS Data)
The report is the first release in the firm’s Jacoby & Meyers Road Safety Report, an ongoing research initiative analyzing public crash data to identify trends and improve road safety awareness across California.
Methodology: Figures are derived from SWITRS (California Highway Patrol) crash data accessed via UC Berkeley SafeTREC TIMS, covering reported LA County crashes 2021–2025. Volume-adjusted figures — such as the 1.9× risk index — use hourly traffic-volume data from Caltrans PeMS (District 7). 2025 severity figures are provisional. A crash is “fatal” when one or more people were killed; the fatalities per crash is total people killed divided by total crashes.
Jacoby & Meyers is a personal injury law firm that has represented injury victims across Los Angeles County and California for decades, handling car accident, DUI accident, hit-and-run, and wrongful death cases on a contingency basis. The firm produces original, data-driven research on road safety to help the public understand when and where crashes are most likely to turn serious.
Jacoby & Meyers
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eagustin@jacobyandmeyers.com
https://www.jacobyandmeyers.com/
Press Contact : Ena Blanca Agustin
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