The number of traffic related fatalities is seeing a sharp decline over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but the number of traffic related injuries is increasing.
Highway Patrol spokesman Tim Hull says the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is the deadliest holiday weekend throughout the year for the state and he thinks weather has something to do with it.
Hull says there has only been one traffic fatality over the Thanksgiving holiday, compared to last year’s four fatalities and the decline is something he has not seen in quite some time.
“Well, when you have good weather it always helps that you don’t have the slide-off types of traffic crashes but even when we have a bad weather day, you don’t see a whole lot of fatality type crashes,” he says. “You might see some injury type crashes, but most of them are slide-off.”
Hull says throughout the years he’s seen fatalities go up in to the double digits. “Over the years, we’ve seen numbers in double digits on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Four was definitely a good number last year for us to see that decrease,” he says. “One fatality this year is much better.” Hull says next year, he’d like to see the fatality numbers get brought down to zero.
He says while the number of traffic related injuries has gone up throughout the state, the number of traffic related fatalities is at a decline. And adds that while it’s good the numbers have dropped, that still means for one family, they will unfortunately be missing a member for next year and the upcoming holiday.
AUDIO: Mary Farucci reports. (:54)