After Labor Day, life across the country speeds up. School’s back in session, daily routines return, and the slower summer pace fades away. Last year, three in four Americans hit the road over Labor Day weekend — traveling, heading to a BBQ, or shopping for deals.

The last taste of summer comes with increased road risk. Since 2010, Labor Day weekend has seen 9% more traffic fatalities than the weekends before and after the holiday. Labor Day sees an average of over 120 traffic deaths per day — 24% higher than Thanksgiving and 28% higher than Christmas. 

What’s fueling the Labor Day road risk? 

CMT’s latest analysis looks at Labor Day driving from 2022 to 2024, comparing it to the Mondays in the surrounding weeks. Distraction and speeding both increase significantly on Labor Day. We also looked at the full holiday weekend — Friday through Sunday — and compared it to the weekends before and after the holiday. Distraction stays about the same, but speeding spikes on Friday and Saturday.

CMT defines distracted driving as tapping on the phone screen while driving over 9 mph, and speeding as traveling 9.3 mph over the speed limit for at least 300 feet — about the length of a football field

Distraction’s up 8.3% on Labor Day

CMT’s research shows that distracted driving jumps 8.3% on Labor Day compared to the surrounding Mondays. Drivers spend 2 minutes and 15 seconds per hour distracted — up from 2 minutes and 5 seconds. The gap in distracted driving on Labor Day rises early, up 10.5% at 9:00 a.m. Between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., when traffic is 5% heavier, distraction is also 14% higher. 

From late morning through early afternoon, distraction time holds steady, averaging about 2 minutes and 17 seconds per hour. Instead of dipping in the late afternoon as usual, distraction spikes between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. — 17.2% above normal. After 6:00 p.m., distraction gradually returns to typical levels. 

Speeding’s even worse on Labor Day

Compounding the risk from rising distraction is a spike in speeding on Labor Day. Overall, speeding is 59.5% higher compared to typical Mondays. The early morning sees a staggering 133.5% surge at 7:00 a.m., with drivers spending over 4 minutes per hour speeding — more than double the norm. While traffic is 72% lighter at that time, the risk quickly ramps up. 

At 10:00 a.m., traffic is 6.8% higher than usual, and speeding is up 49%. Traffic and speeding remain elevated over the next three hours. Speeding remains 48% above normal — making it one of the riskiest stretches of the day. 

Speeding continues to climb in the afternoon. From 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., drivers average 2 minutes and 58 seconds speeding per hour, an 84.5% increase. The gap narrows after 7:00 p.m., but speeding is still 29.5% higher than usual.

Is the rest of Labor Day weekend just as risky?

The increase in traffic fatalities over Labor Day weekend isn’t limited to Monday — it stretches across the entire long weekend. To see if driving behavior follows the same trend, we looked at distraction and speeding from Friday through Sunday, comparing them to the weekends before and after. Distracted driving barely changes, rising less than 1%. Speeding, however, jumps 6.6% on Friday and 6.3% on Saturday.

Certain hours show even sharper spikes. On Fridays, speeding surges over 10% in the early morning before returning to typical levels by late morning. It rises again in the early evening, up 8% between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. During this window, people are likely wrapping up work and heading into the weekend. By 9:00 p.m., it climbs even higher, jumping 10.8%.

Saturday also starts off with a morning speeding surge of 8.6%. This spike could be from drivers who didn’t travel on Friday. From noon to 7:00 p.m., speeding stays consistently elevated, averaging 5–7% above normal. Labor Day clearly brings a surge in risky driving that extends beyond the holiday itself. 

Slide into the end of summer safely

As millions hit the road for end-of-summer fun, stay alert — driving is risky all weekend. Make this Labor Day memorable for all the right reasons.