Seminole County, Fla. \u2013 Florida\u2019s roads come with a warning after dark. A recent analysis ranked the Sunshine State third most dangerous in the nation for nighttime driving \u2014 and years of federal crash data help explain why.<\/p>\n
The review done by vehicle history report provider Zilocar.com<\/a> compiled 2024 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration\u2019s Fatality Analysis Reporting System<\/a>. Of the state\u2019s 2,931 total fatal crashes recorded in 2024, 1,734 \u2014 or 59.2% \u2014 occurred at night.<\/p>\n News 6\u2019s own review of the national numbers reveals more than 60% of fatal crashes in Florida between 2020 and 2024 occurred in low-light conditions. That translates to an average of 784 nighttime traffic deaths every year over that five-year span.<\/p>\n Behind the wheel after dark<\/p>\n News 6 rode along with our traffic safety expert Trooper Steve Montiero to break down what makes nighttime driving so much more dangerous than hitting the road in daylight.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, at nighttime, the crashes are usually more violent,\u201d Trooper Steve said.<\/p>\n He says one of the biggest culprits is driver overconfidence.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople come out assuming it\u2019s the exact same driving as what we\u2019re doing right now,\u201d Trooper Steve said. \u201cBut the difference is obvious. We can see everything that\u2019s taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n Visibility, he says, is only part of the equation. Depth perception is another critical factor that drivers often underestimate once the sun goes down.<\/p>\n \u201cDepth perception is massive when you\u2019re driving,\u201d Trooper Steve said.<\/p>\n A deadly crash close to home<\/p>\n The danger isn\u2019t theoretical. In the early morning hours of July 10, 2026, a 25-year-old man from Kissimmee was killed on State Road 417 northbound near mile marker 39, just north of Aloma Avenue in Seminole County.<\/p>\n According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the driver \u2014 operating a 2022 Acura ILX \u2014 was traveling northbound in the outside lane when, for unknown reasons, he drifted into an active construction zone lane closure and struck the rear of a parked 2024 Ford F-650 construction drill truck. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n The case remains under investigation.<\/p>\n The incident drew attention at a recent Seminole County Commission meeting, where commissioners called on local staff to work with the Florida Department of Transportation on potential safety improvements along the corridor, if needed. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to ask our commission to actually have our staff talk to DOT about reducing the speed,\u201d Commissioner Bob Dallari said.<\/p>\n Commissioner Andria Herr encouraged county staff to understand the circumstances further. <\/p>\n \u201cWe need to find out what it is,\u201d Herr said. \u201cWe need to have our engineering team understand why it\u2019s posted the way it\u2019s posted. And if there are concerns on behalf of the engineers that do this all, then we need to be lobbying for safety.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida among deadliest states after dark<\/p>\n Only Texas and California recorded more nighttime fatal crashes than Florida in 2024. Texas led the nation with 2,247 nighttime crashes, representing 59.5% of its total. California followed closely with 2,221 nighttime crashes \u2014 62% of its total, the highest nighttime share of any state in the top 10.<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s worst month for nighttime crashes was March, with 181 incidents. September was the safest, with 115 \u2014 a difference of 57%.<\/p>\n Nationally, more than half of all fatal crashes \u2014 53.6%, totaling 19,441 \u2014 occurred at night in 2024.<\/p>\n Size, traffic volume not the only factors<\/p>\n Experts note that the states with the most nighttime crashes tend to be among the largest and most heavily traveled \u2014 but population and traffic volume alone don\u2019t tell the full story.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, Trooper Steve says it comes down to the person behind the wheel.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, a driver is ultimately in control of their car,\u201d Trooper Steve said. <\/p>\n Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seminole County, Fla. \u2013 Florida\u2019s roads come with a warning after dark. A recent analysis ranked the Sunshine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1776,6130,28,30,29,140611,1014,15007],"class_list":["post-342730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crash","tag-driving","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-night-driving-risks","tag-seminole-county","tag-traffic-fatalities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}