State Police Up Patrols For Thanksgiving Weekend

“During the holiday time, people are off, sitting around with their families, it’s football season and people have a tendency to do some celebrating with their families while they’re not working”. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office joins local law enforcement and the Kansas Highway Patrol for the Thanksgiving Traffic Enforcement Campaign. The South Dakota Highway Patrol is increasing its presence on the roads and reminding drivers to be safe, but they are the only ones sharing advice. “But, as evident by the spike in traffic deaths this year, we still need more drivers and passengers to do their part by buckling up, complying with speed limits, sharing the road, and never driving impaired or distracted”. There have been 851 motorists killed this year, compared to 720 at this time last year.

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is typically one of the busiest travel times of the year. The campaign will be conducted on Wednesday, November 25 from 11 a.m.to 11 p.m. and again on Sunday, November 29 from 9 a.m.to 9 p.m.

The law is explicit: Driving with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of.08% or more is illegal, but even with a lower BAC a driver may be a hazard and taken to jail.

KSP troopers will concentrate their efforts on high-traffic areas and high-crash locations.

Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina will be participating in the program. They also found that the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the most unsafe day to travel. “So just put down the cell phones, pay attention to the responsibility of driving and get yourself and your family to where you’re going safely”.

In 2014, over the Thanksgiving weekend, 45 people died in collisions on California roadways – a 36 percent increase from the same period in 2013.

State Police and local police urged revelers to plan ahead for a safe ride home before heading out.

“Over the Thanksgiving period a year ago, statewide we had 469 crashes and 18 people lost their lives”, said Corporal John Lueckenhoff, Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop D PIO.