Men account for nearly four out of every five traffic deaths in Charlotte, and the disparity grows even wider during the city’s most dangerous overnight hours, according to a new analysis of 2024 fatal crash data from Shane Smith Law. Of the 113 people killed in Charlotte traffic crashes last year, 88 were male, and 25 were female, meaning men accounted for 78% of all traffic deaths in the city, nearly four times the female share. The gap was starkest overnight: every person killed between 1:00 a.m. and 5:59 a.m. was male, as was every fatality recorded during the 10:00 p.m. hour specifically, timeframes strongly associated with alcohol impairment, speeding, and other high-risk driving behavior on otherwise quiet roads.
The report’s authors note that Charlotte’s gender gap mirrors decades of national road safety research showing men die in traffic crashes at significantly higher rates than women, a pattern generally attributed to more total miles driven, more late-night travel, greater involvement in commercial driving, lower seatbelt compliance, and higher rates of impaired driving among male drivers specifically.
Age tells a similarly specific story, one that runs counter to the common assumption that road deaths are concentrated among the very young and very old. The 25-34 age group suffered the highest number of fatalities in Charlotte in 2024, 24 deaths, 21% of the citywide total, followed closely by the 45-54 age group with 21 deaths and the 35-44 age group with 14. Combined, adults between the ages of 25 and 54, Charlotte’s core working and commuting population, accounted for more than half of all traffic deaths in the city last year.
Younger drivers were still heavily represented in the data. The 16-20 age group recorded 13 fatalities and the 21-24 group recorded 11, while three children under 16 were also killed, a reminder that young passengers’ safety depends entirely on the decisions of the adults driving them. Older adults, by contrast, accounted for comparatively few deaths: the 55-64 and 65-74 age groups each recorded 10 fatalities, and those 75 and older recorded 6, despite older drivers generally facing higher odds that any given crash proves fatal due to increased physical vulnerability.
The report also finds that Charlotte’s deadliest time windows aren’t defined by a single risk factor, but by several compounding at once. The midnight-to-3-a.m. window, the single deadliest three-hour stretch of the year with 21 fatal crashes, saw 62% of those crashes involve a driver at or above the legal blood alcohol limit and 43% involve speeding as a contributing factor, meaning Charlotte’s most dangerous hours are frequently both its most impaired and among its most speed-related. The late-night window between 9:00 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. showed a similar pattern, with 18 fatal crashes, a 44% alcohol impairment rate, a 33% speeding involvement rate, and a disproportionate share of victims falling within the same 25-to-54 working-age range identified as the city’s most vulnerable demographic overall.
Morning rush hour told a different story entirely. Fatal crashes between 6:00 a.m. and 8:59 a.m. weren’t primarily driven by impairment, but by high traffic volume, time pressure, distraction, and a 36% speeding involvement rate, directly challenging any assumption that daytime commuter traffic is inherently safer than nighttime driving.
“The data shows Charlotte’s roads don’t become dangerous at random, they become dangerous on a predictable schedule,” said a spokesperson for Shane Smith Law. “And right now, working-age men are paying the heaviest price for that pattern.”
The report’s authors argue that because risk in Charlotte stems from overlapping factors, impairment, speed, fatigue, and demographic exposure, rather than any single cause, effective prevention will likely require a multifaceted approach: enforcement strategies tailored to each specific high-risk window alongside public awareness campaigns targeted at the drivers, largely working-age men, who are statistically most likely to be involved in a fatal crash.