RICHMOND, Va. – This year’s Thanksgiving holiday weekend was deadly on Virginia roads.
Virginia State Police said between Wednesday, November 21 and Sunday, November 25 preliminary reports showed 11 traffic crashes took the lives of nine drivers, two passengers and a motorcyclist. This is down two people from 2017 when 14 people were killed in traffic crashes on Virginia’s highways – the most killed over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend since 2013.
In addition to the fatalities police said the 2018 Thanksgiving holiday Operation C.A.R.E. initiative resulted in citations for 596 individuals who failed to obey the law and buckle up 198 citations for child safety seat violations.
In addition A total of 102 drunken drivers were arrested by state police and 7,419 speeders and 2,157 reckless drivers got tickets.
“We are about to embark on one of the busiest and most heavily-traveled times of the year,” said Colonel Gary T. Settle, Virginia State Police Superintendent. “Today Governor Northam announced the new ‘Towards Zero Deaths’ campaign and urged Virginians to help change the Commonwealth’s traffic safety culture so we can achieve the goal of reducing the number of traffic-related serious injuries and deaths to zero. Virginia State Police troopers are committed to keeping our highways as safe as possible during the winter holiday season by increasing patrols and DUI checkpoints with our local law enforcement partners across the state. Now we just need the motoring public to commit to driving safe, smart and sober.”
