With school set to start up again and the Labor Day weekend almost upon us, most people will be hitting the road for one last trip before the unofficial end of the summer season. While it might be something as simple as a trip to a friend’s house for a cook-out, or one last weekend at the beach, motorists are reminded that accidents can happen at any time, and we all should buckle up, slow down and pay attention as we travel in and around Michigan. Consider that:

• A traffic crash occurs in Michigan every 1 minute, 25 seconds.
  
  
• One person is injured in a crash every 5 minutes, 16 seconds. A fatality occurs in a crash every 7 hours, 33 minutes.
  
  
• There were 373,028 reported crashes in 2004, of which 1,055 were fatal, 73,118 were personal injury, and 298,855 were property damage only crashes.
  
  
  
  
• In that same year, more fatal crashes occurred between 3:00 PM and 5:59 PM than any other time period.
  
  
  
  
• The estimated economic loss due to traffic crashes was $9.4 billion. If costs were spread across the state's population this would translate into a loss of $930 per state resident.