Road Map Offers Somber Reminder of the Frequency of Vehicle-Related Deaths [Interactive Map]

Thanksgiving weekend is traditionally one of the biggest travel weekends of the year. If you were out on the roads this past weekend, you may have noticed extra law enforcement patrolling the streets and highways looking to keep things safe for everyone. Personally, on my way out of town to see family, I noticed half a dozen Minnesota State Troopers in a few-mile stretch of I-35. Several of these officers had cars pulled over, issuing citations.

As we're out driving; especially around the holidays, many of us might think of these officers as obstacles between us and our destination. This is an unfortunate mentality to have, especially considering the number of avoidable accidents these officers are looking to prevent by enforcing the law.

In a map released by ITO, a company specializing in mapping various transportation-related things, it is quite apparent vehicle-related fatalities are a sad reality. ITO took vehicle-related fatalities from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 2001-2009 and plotted them on an interactive map. The map, seen below, shows that nearly every community across the country has been impacted by a vehicle-related fatality in the last decade.

Click the "Key" button to make the legend appear/disappear, or search for any location in the country using the search bar.