Highway Patrol asks drivers to be careful on the roads this holiday weekend

RALEIGH, NC (WWAY) – The Labor Day weekend marks the traditional end of summer vacation.  That usually means many people on the roads visiting family and friends.

That’s why the Highway Patrol is encouraging people to drive carefully and obey all traffic laws.

The Highway Patrol will increase patrols on all North Carolina highways during the holiday weekend. Troopers will be looking for impaired drivers, speeders and careless/reckless driver as well as helping drivers in need. The Labor Day holiday period officially begins at 6:00 p.m., Friday, September 2, and ends at 11:59 p.m., Monday, September 5.

“As Labor Day approaches, I ask everyone to think safety first. Please designate a sober driver and obey all the traffic laws,” said Bill Grey, commander of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. “Working together we can make a difference and save lives.”

Last year in North Carolina, troopers investigated 10 fatal crashes and 365 crashes with injuries over the Labor Day weekend. Three of those wrecks were attributed to impaired driving.

According to the Center for Disease Control, from 2003 to 2012, over 4,000 people were killed in crashes involving a drunk driver in North Carolina alone. To reduce needless deaths from occurring, in 2015 troopers made over 21,000 arrests for driving while impaired.  Despite these efforts, the Highway Patrol is asking motorists to do their part as well.

The Highway Patrol offers these tips to keep impaired drivers off the road.

• Be as non-confrontational as possible.
• Suggest alternate ways of getting to their destination — a cab, a sober driver, public transportation.
• Remember that the person you are talking to is impaired — talk a bit more slowly and explain things more fully than if you were speaking to a sober person.
• Explain that you don’t want them to drive because you care and you don’t want them to hurt themselves or others.
• Suggest that they sleep over.
• Enlist a friend to help you or to act as moral support — it’s more difficult to say “no” to two (or three or four) people than one.
• If possible, get the person’s keys. It is far easier to persuade the potential driver when you hold this leverage.
• If all else fails, call law enforcement. It’s better to have a friend arrested than injured or killed.

If you see someone you believe to be driving while impaired or driving in a careless and reckless manner, dial *HP or *47.  Be prepared to assist the dispatcher by giving a description of the vehicle, the license plate number, location, and direction of travel.