Recent Highway Safety Reminders
Holidays always seem to be a good time for reminders of highway and driving safety. Labor Day is the end of the summer holiday weekend for many people. This year, our North Carolina Highway Patrol urged drivers to slow down, and had several initiatives in place to promote safety.
In addition to focusing on aggressive driving and other safety measures, the Highway Patrol continued to emphasize their "Click-It or Ticket" campaign for seatbelt safety, and the "Booze It & Lose It" campaign against drunk driving.
The North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program had a three-week campaign that ran from August 15 through Labor Day, September 1, 2008. In statistics just released, they made 2821 DWI arrests, 8812 safety belt violations, and 26,911 speeding violations. In total there were more than 100,000 traffic and traffic related criminal violation arrests during this period of time.
These statistics are stark reminders for all of us of the dangers on our roadways. The costs are high in the cost of tickets, increased insurance rates, injuries, and ultimately the loss of life. Although death statistics have not yet been released, recent news indicates that North Carolina is one of just a few states to actually have deaths increase on our roadways.
Please, remember that there are many dangers on our roadways. We all need to work together, and with our young people, to help make our roads safer for all of us. Don’t drink and drive, use your seat belt, and slow down. These are the biggest areas of concern, and the ones that result in the most serious injuries and deaths.