Motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death for Americans age 1-44. (That's everyone too young to be at risk for heart disease, cancer, and stroke, the biggest overall killers.)

In 2009, 33,963 Americans died in road crashes – that's 9/11 every month – and 2.3 million were treated in emergency rooms for injuries, many of them disfiguring or disabling. Between 1899 and the end of 1986 about 2,650,000 Americans died in motor-vehicle accidents (five times as many as died in WWII).

Though it doesn't feel like it – we don't have any evolutionary hardwiring to tell us to be afraid – driving is the most dangerous activity in modern life. Here's how to survive your drive.

1. Don't drive after drinking. Alcohol-impaired drivers are involved in 1 in 3 crash deaths, causing 11,000 deaths in 2009.
   • Don't try to work out if you're sober enough to drive.
   • Don't ever ride with someone who's been drinking. Be rude. Call a cab.
2. Don't speed. Speeding is a factor in one third of road deaths. Arrive alive.
3. Wear your seatbelt – in any seat, in any vehicle (including cabs). Nearly half of all people who get dead driving weren't wearing theirs.
4. Don't drive distracted. In 2009, 5,474 people were killed in crashes involving driver distraction, and 448,000 injured.
   • Turn off your phone. If you leave it on, don't answer it. If you call someone and they are driving, hang up. See video →
     • Using a phone while driving is four times as likely to cause a crash as driving at the legal limit for alcohol.
     • Your hands-free unit does not make it any safer. The short Wikipedia article explains why (and provides research citations).
   • Don't eat, put on make-up, chat, or fiddle with the radio. Again, you are doing the most dangerous thing in life, so you should probably focus on it. And it is not just you who are in danger, but also your passengers – plus all the daughters, sons, wives, and husbands sharing the road with you.
   • Did we mention car crashes are the number one cause of death of teenaged girls? See video →
5. Don't assume the other guy won't kill you. Be prepared for unpredictable lane changes, sudden stops, unsignaled turns, swerving, and tailgating – all of which will kill you just as dead as your own error. Know what's happening on the sides of your car, behind, and down the road.
   • The two main ways faultless drivers get killed are:
     • A head-on collision when an oncoming driver swerves into your lane. Stay on partitioned roads whenever possible. (This is why they are statistically much safer.) When on unpartitioned roads, don't assume oncoming cars will stay on their side.
     • A side-on collision when someone at a cross street totally misses a stop sign or red light, and comes through at full speed. Try to look both ways, even when you have the right of way.
6. Don't drive drowsy, especially when alone. Don't try to push on through. Dozing off is insidious.
7. Slow down at night. Fatal crashes are three times as common at night. Slow down and increase following distance. Be extra careful on hills and curves.
8. Be extra careful in bad weather. Slow down and increase following distance. Be extra careful on hills and curves.
9. Don't tailgate. Leave a safe following distance, and give yourself time to react. You won't get there one second sooner tailgating; and much later if you have a wreck.
10. Drive the newest car you can afford. Life-saving features – such as multiple air bags, crumple zones, anti-lock brakes, and electronic stability control – are more common in newer cars.
11. Don't drive aggressively, which also increases accident risk. Try to have some perspective: you're not dead, in a wheelchair, or facially disfigured – what do you have to be upset about? Take a deep breath. It's Christmas.
12. Be especially careful on rural state roads, where death rates are much higher.
13. Maintain your vehicle.
    • Check your tire pressure. Blowouts are seriously lethal.
    • Don't ignore soft or vibrating brakes. You're going to need your brakes.
14. Always signal/indicate for turns. It's not optional.
15. Watch out for bikers, cyclists, and pedestrians. This won't save your life, but you'll enjoy Christmas a lot more if you haven't accidentally killed someone else. (Thousands won't be so lucky.)

Best wishes for a lovely, happy, joyful, peaceful, safe holiday.

• U.S. Department of Transportation
• Centers for Disease Control
• Distraction.gov
• New York Times
• U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Agency
• Wikipedia:Mobile phones and driving safety