Tax Deadline Day Can Be Deadly On US Roads

This is your last full week to get those taxes done.  I'd get them done now and then maybe stay off the road!  Since April 15th falls on a Sunday, you do get a little extra time as taxes need to be postmarked by midnight at April 16th.  It's a very stressful time for many who wait until the last minute for various reasons.  This stress leads to a hurried run to the post office that, as it turns out, leads to an increase in road fatalities at tax time.  Well, this report should make the stress of filing taxes even better!  Don't panic, if you aren't done yet you have time.

The two certainties in life — death and taxes — may be more intertwined than Ben Franklin ever imagined: A study found that deadly auto accidents increase on Tax Day.

Drivers recklessly racing to the post office to meet the deadline might be one reason. Or it could be that stressing over taxes distracts motorists and contributes to human error, researchers said.

They looked at 30 years of data and found 6,783 traffic-related deaths on Tax Day, or 226 per day. That compares with 213 per day on one day a week before the deadline day and another day a week after.

Drivers were slightly less likely than passengers and pedestrians to be killed.

The traffic death rate on Tax Day — which usually falls on April 15 — was 6 percent higher than on other April days. That doesn't sound like a lot, but lead author Dr. Donald Redelmeier said it means an average of about 13 extra deaths per day and amounts to about $40 million in annual losses to society.

That estimate includes loss of life, injury and property damage costs, said Redelmeier, a physician and researcher at the University of Toronto.

via Study: Tax deadline day can be deadly on US roads - Yahoo! Finance.