EDITORIAL: Be a celebrant, not a statistic

Published 12:09 pm Wednesday, July 2, 2025

An estimated 72 million people are expected to travel this week in anticipation of the long Fourth of July weekend, according to AAA. More than 61 million of those people will be on the roadways.

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety and other traffic enforcement agencies will be on the roads as well, helping ensure that we all make it to our destinations safely.

We can do our part in that regard as well.

The Georgia State Patrol and local law enforcement will be looking to save lives and prevent crashes by targeting impaired driving, distracted driving, speeding, reckless driving and other illegal driving behaviors during the extended July 4th holiday weekend that begins at 6 p.m. on Thursday and ends at 11:59 a.m. on Sunday.

The July 4th holiday weekend takes place during the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s ‘Operation Zero Tolerance’ drunk and driving enforcement and awareness campaign. State troopers, deputies and police officers in Georgia maintain a year-round zero tolerance policy for drunk and drugged driving.

Please don’t drink and drive. If your holiday celebration includes alcohol, call a ride-share service or have a designated driver.

Be a celebrant, not a statistic.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 40 percent of the people killed in passenger vehicle crashes during the July 4th holiday travel period in Georgia from 2019-2023 involved a drunk driver and more than 60 percent of those DUI fatal crashes in Georgia during the July Fourth holiday weekend over these five years involved a driver whose BAC was twice the legal limit.

Of the 617 people killed in traffic crashes in the United States during the 2023 102-hour July Fourth holiday travel period, 38% (233) of those people died in crashes involving a drunk driver and 27% of the total drunk driving fatal crashes in the United States during the 2023 July Fourth holiday period involved a driver whose BAC was twice the legal limit.

Enjoy the holiday and add to the fulfillment of the day, not the statistics.