The lanes on Interstate Highway 680 in Fremont have been made accessible to drivers again after a fatal collision involving multiple vehicles occurred early Saturday morning. The northbound lanes of I-680, close to the Auto Mall Parkway offramp, were reopened by the California Highway Patrol shortly after 4:50 a.m. on Saturday. At approximately 1:15 a.m., there was a collision involving at least three vehicles, which resulted in at least one fatality, as previously reported by the CHP.
In years, across the nation, 52 percent of motor vehicle crash fatalities took place in accidents involving only one vehicle. Montana and Hawaii shared the distinction of having the highest percentage of single-vehicle crash fatalities, both at 70 percent. Conversely, Nebraska had the highest percentage of fatalities resulting from multi-vehicle crashes, standing at 57 percent. Some states only provide Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) information for a small portion of passenger vehicle drivers involved in accidents. In cases where BAC data is missing for a driver, the U.S. Department of Transportation relies on a multiple imputation model to estimate it.
Lanes on I-680 in Fremont Reopen
However, the precision of BAC information varies across states, with the most accurate data coming from states reporting a high percentage of crashes where BAC information is available. The table below displays estimated percentages of passenger vehicle drivers who were fatally injured and had BACs at or above 0.08 percent, but this data is only shown for states where BAC reporting for fatally injured drivers was 70 percent or higher. These estimates are derived from known BAC information when available and imputed BAC for drivers with missing data.
On a national scale, BAC data was reported for 59 percent of fatally injured passenger vehicle drivers. Reporting rates exhibited significant variation, ranging from a high of 95 percent in Hawaii to a low of 9 percent in Mississippi. Thirty-one states had BAC reporting rates of at least 70 percent. Among these states, Montana had the highest estimated percentage of fatally injured drivers with BACs of 0.08 percent or higher, standing at 47 percent, while West Virginia had the lowest at 21 percent.
Based on daytime observational surveys, the nationwide rate of seat belt usage among front seat passenger vehicle occupants stood at 90 percent. California exhibited the highest observed seat belt use among front seat occupants at 97 percent, while New Hampshire recorded the lowest usage at 76 percent.
It’s important to note that rates of restraint use among motor vehicle occupants who were fatally injured will be lower compared to the overall observed restraint use rate. This is because unrestrained occupants are more likely to suffer fatal injuries in a crash than those who are restrained, including occupants in child safety seats and those using seat belts. In 2021, only 45 percent of fatally injured occupants were found to be restrained. Among these figures, New York reported the highest percentage of restraint use among fatally injured occupants at 57 percent, while New Hampshire had the lowest, with just 19 percent restraint use.
