History:
Memorial day as we know it today is a day to recognize U.S. soldiers who have died while serving. The origins of the holiday are a little fuzzy. “The first planned holiday occurred on April 26, 1866.”[1] This day represented the majority of the Confederate soldiers surrendered in North Carolina in 1865. The day was planned and orchestrated by the Ladies’ Memorial Association in Columbus, Georgia. They didn’t want this to be an isolated event so they wrote a letter to all the major newspapers throughout the United States to coordinate their efforts to throw flowers on the graves of the fallen soldiers.
Modern Day:
We’ve come a long way since then, we celebrate in many ways such as in silence, parades, BBQ’s, shopping, and with friends and family. The good news is that with all these celebrations gas is cheap now. The bad news is there will be traffic everywhere you go... “The Orange County Register cited that there will be nearly 3 million people hitting the road this weekend, touted as the busiest travel weekend since 2005. According to the Automobile Club of Southern California 2.45 million will be traveling by car.”[2]
Insurance Dangers:
With all these cars on the road there are bound to be accidents. “On average, we’ll see 50,500 injuries and 439 fatalities over the weekend.”[3] Of these accidents 44% of them are caused due to alcohol. Not surprising, 62% of Americans plan on having a barbeque this weekend. Whether you favor the gas, charcoal, or electric grill be sure to remember your basic fire safety, as 25% more home cooking fires occur on Memorial Day than average.
With this being said, consider yourself warned, and we expect we will have very few if any calls about claims on Tuesday =}.
Have a great Memorial Day Holiday!
-Vincent Chun
Statistics:
WalletHub put together a great infographic with all kinds of crazy Memorial statistics, see below.
