By Lisa Redmond
Lowell Sun
BOSTON — If you are planning on getting behind the wheel and hitting the highway between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. any day in August, here is some advice: Be afraid, be very afraid.
Statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicate that August is the deadliest month of the year to be on America’s highways.
“The riskiest thing you can do is get behind the wheel of a car,” said institute spokesman Russ Rader. “It boils down to the amount of vehicles on the road and the amount of driving.”
August is especially deadly because aside from people commuting to work, the roads are clogged with families who have loaded up the family vehicle to hit the road on vacation in addition to college students moving back to school, Rader said.
Speed, weather and alcohol can also be factors in fatal crashes, he said.
“One-third of fatal accidents involve speed,” he said.
In 2009, the agency reported, an average of 93 people died each day in U.S. motor-vehicle crashes -- an average of one death every 16 minutes. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that from 2005 to 2009, seven of the 25 deadliest days overall occurred in August.
Since most people are on the move between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., that’s when most fatal crashes occur, he said.
Massachusetts is living up to the deadly prediction so far this month.
State police have responded to six fatal crashes across the commonwealth in the past eight days -- half of them in the Merrimack Valley.
State police spokesman David Procopio said the only similarities between the crashes is they were all tragedies.
“There do not appear to be any common denominators, other than that they are all tragedies for those who were killed and the families they left behind,” he said.
On Friday afternoon, Xjaoyun Jiang, a woman in her 70s from Westford, was killed when a backhoe fell off the trailer of a National Grid truck on Interstate 495 in Southboro and crushed the 2000 Toyota Sienna minivan she was a passenger in. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The woman driving the minivan, Yingzi Wang, 42, was flown by helicopter to UMass Medical Center in Worcester. Two children, ages 10 and 13, were taken by ambulance to the same hospital. Their names or conditions have not been released.
A National Grid spokesman said the truck towing the backhoe was being tested after employees identified safety concerns with the vehicle.
State police and National Grid continue to probe the crash.
“We’re conducting our own investigation in addition to working with public-safety officials on their investigation,” said National Grid spokesman David Graves.
State troopers are looking at driver error, mechanical failure and whether the backhoe was improperly secured to the trailer, Procopio said.
The results of that investigation are a few weeks from being completed, he said.
Four days after the Southboro crash, Lowell City Treasurer David McGurl and a 32-year-old Rhode Island man were killed in back-to-back crashes on I-93 in Methuen and Wilmington, respectively.
McGurl, 57, of Arlington, was killed in a 10 a.m. crash when state police say his 1999 Cadillac DeVille veered off the highway without braking and slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer truck legally parked in a cutout in the highway.
McGurl, who was driving to work after spending the weekend in New Hampshire, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Less than eight hours later on I-93 in Wilmington, Cristian Hernandez-Giron, 32, of Central Falls, R.I., was killed when the box truck he was riding in was struck by a Chevy van and rolled over. Hernandez-Giron was transported to Lahey Clinic in Burlington where he was pronounced dead.
The box truck’s driver, Luis Gasparico, 55, of Providence, R.I., was seriously injured and taken to Lahey Clinic. His condition is unknown.
Greg Galanopoulous, the driver of a 2002 Chevy van, was arraigned in Woburn District Court yesterday on charges of motor-vehicle homicide, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and unlicensed operation.
Shortly before 11:30 p.m., state police were investigating a two-car accident on I-93 north, just north of Concord Road. The injuries were minor.
While state police continue to probe all the crashes, the two deadly crashes on Monday occurred during heavy downpours.
When there is wet weather after many dry days, Procopio said, commuters make the mistake of driving like the roads are still dry.
Other fatal crashes across the state in August have included:
* At 1 a.m. on Aug. 8 on Interstate 95 in Attleboro, Jean Charles, 34, of Mattapan, died when his car rolled over between exits 2 and 3.
* At 9:47 p.m. on Aug. 11, Tuc Phan, 67, of Danvers was killed when he drove off I-95 in Boxford near exit 52 and into the woods. Other drivers reported that Phan was driving against the traffic just before the crash.
* Charles J. Levesque, 54, of Raynham, was killed when he lost control of his 2006 Honda motorcycle on I-495 in Raynham and was thrown from his bike. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Rader, of the safety institute, said crashes, especially fatal ones, can be avoided by slowing down, wearing a seat belt and increased traffic enforcement by police.
“Other than the unusual situation, nearly every fatal accident is preventable,” Rader said.
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