December 24, 2020
By News Director Jared Atha
Travel always increases during the holiday season, and this year – despite a pandemic – appears to be no different.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is expecting to see a large number of people traveling to visit their families for the holidays. With the possibility of increased traffic, troopers are urging travelers to drive as safely as they can.
According to the National Safety Council, traveling by car during the holidays has the highest fatality rate of any major form of transportation. Last year, more than 100 Americans lost their lives while traveling on Christmas Day.
In Oklahoma, there was a total of 110 crashes over the 2019 holiday reporting period between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, according to the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office. Five of those crashes were fatal, resulting in the death of eight persons, and two of those crashes were alcohol or drug related.
The highest number of crashes over the holiday reporting period for Christmas 2019 occurred in the evening hours on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, according to the OHSO.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol will also have extra troopers out on the road to ensure everyone is staying safe.
In Texas, The Texas Department of Public Safety announced recently its annual Christmas and New Year’s holiday traffic enforcement campaigns kicked off on Wednesday. DPS is reminding drivers to celebrate the holiday season responsibly by practicing safe driving habits and obeying all traffic laws.
As part of two Operation Holiday initiatives, DPS Troopers will be increasing enforcement beginning now through Saturday, as well as Thursday, Dec. 31, through Friday, Jan. 1. Simultaneously, the nationwide Operation CARE (Crash Awareness and Reduction Effort) initiative will run now through Jan. 3.
DPS Troopers will be looking for drivers who violate the law, including those who are speeding, driving while intoxicated, failing to wear a seat belt, driving without insurance and not complying with the state’s Move Over, Slow Down law, among other traffic violations.
During DPS’ 2019 Christmas and New Year’s holiday enforcement efforts combined, a total of more than 169,000 warnings and citations were issued, including 15,786 speeding citations; 2,105 seat belt and child seat violations; 3,465 citations for driving without insurance; and 1,300 for violations of Move Over, Slow Down. Last year’s enforcement efforts also resulted in 787 DWI arrests, 609 felony arrests and 555 fugitive arrests.
