VPR News: State Police urge safe driving over holidays

State Police urge safe driving over holidays

Wednesday, 11/21/07

Ross Sneyd - Colchester, VT

Options

(Host) A lot of people will be on Vermont's highways over the next few days heading to Thanksgiving celebrations.

Vermont State Police Lieutenant John Flannigan says those travelers will be seeing plenty of state troopers along the way.

The Thanksgiving travel period has been a dangerous one on the highways in the past. And Flannigan says troopers are trying to make sure people get to their destinations safely.

(Flannigan) ``Our message is buckle up, click it or ticket. If you are stopped for a violation, you will be issued a seat belt ticket if you are not wearing your seat belts. And we do have some concerns about impaired driving also over the Thanksgiving weekend where we will be doing some specific sobriety checkpoints throughout the state.''

(Host) Flannigan says 50 percent of people who die on the roads in Vermont are killed because they weren't wearing a seat belt.

(Flannigan) ``When we talk about traffic fatalities, these are preventable crashes. And we've experienced 59 so far this year to date. We're on a record to see one of our lowest fatality years. However, we have some concerns just because some past history with not only the Thanksgiving holiday, but also into some of the December holidays and New Year's.''

(Host) Last year there were no fatal traffic accidents on Vermont highways during the Thanksgiving holiday.

But that was the exception. In 2005 five people died and the year before three died.

© Copyright 2009, VPR

This is the online edition of VPR News. Text versions of VPR news stories may be updated and they may vary slightly from the broadcast version.