Safe Holiday Travel in Alabama a Focus through Thanksgiving

Nov 21, 2013 - Car Accidents by Cross & Smith

The Thanksgiving holidays traditionally mean heavy traffic on Alabama’s roadways, and all available state troopers will be on duty to promote safe travel during the period.

Through the holiday weekend, all available state troopers will be on duty to help ensure the safety of motorists. Enforcement activity will include driver license checkpoints, line patrols and saturation patrols in selected areas. This is a heads up to be on your best driving behavior not only to avoid a costly citation, but to avoid a potentially serious traffic accident.

Our Tuscaloosa car accident lawyers understand that there are supposed to be close to 450 traffic accident fatalities and another 47,000 injuries over this year’s Thanksgiving Holiday weekend, according to the National Safety Council (NSC). This is typically because it’s one of the most-traveled holiday weekends of the year.

“NSC issues fatality estimates for major holiday periods to draw attention to the need for drivers to exercise safe driving practices,” said NSC’s John Ulczycki.

CNN reports that more than 43 million Americans are expected to travel at least 50 miles from their home over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. Of those travelers, about 40 million of them will be driving.

“For those traveling the good news is motorists will receive a holiday bonus in the form of lower gas prices which are at their lowest levels for the holiday since 2010,” said AAA Chief Operating Officer Marshall L. Doney.

AAA said drivers should be able to find stations selling gas for less than $3.00 per gallon in the vast majority of states. These savings could also spur travelers to use the money elsewhere in their holiday plans.

And the increase in travel is most alarming because of the recent increase in traffic accident fatalities across the nation. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), highway fatalities increased to 33,561 in 2012, which is 1,082 more fatalities than in 2011. Most of those involved were motorcyclists and pedestrians.

This is the first increase that we’ve had since 2005. So before heading out on your Thanksgiving adventure, make sure that you take a moment to focus on safe driving habits. Only you can help to keep you and your travelers safe. We can’t always rely on the driving habits of others.

Whatever direction you are traveling, check on the weather forecast as well as the traffic conditions. Some routes take drivers through mountain ranges, where precipitation can change quickly to sleet and snow.

We also want to remind everyone to wear their seat belts. For families with young children it’s important to have a properly installed child safety seat or booster seat for each child. Officials with the NSC estimate that about 160 lives may be saved over Turkey Day by buckling up. They add that another 110 lives may be saved if everyone were to buckle up.

Seat-belt enforcement will be conducted by “stationary officers” who are walking or out of vehicles observing passing drivers, he said. Additional officers will be notified to pull over any drivers who are not wearing seat belts.

More Blog Entries:

Teens Answer Questionable Survey Regarding Drunk Driving, Alabama Injury Attorneys Blog, November 8, 2013
No Time for Complacency: The Most Dangerous Time on the Road, Alabama Injury Attorneys Blog, November 5, 2013