Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008

Labor Day danger

WE’VE BEEN HEARING a lot of encouraging news lately about our state’s and nation’s struggle with highway fatalities, which are down considerably.

But that’s due less to safer vehicles and safer drivers than to fewer drivers on the road — one of the few positive effects of record-high gasoline prices. (The people who are driving slower — and less dangerously — are generally doing so for the same reason.)

What that means is that this coming weekend — the final one of what police dub the deadly days of summer — is no time to let down your guard. If anything, it’s time to be extra-vigilant, as temporarily lower gas prices combine with people celebrating the last hurrah of the season to recongest the highways. People who have grown accustomed to less congested highways are likely to be unprepared for the sudden change.

Police will do their part, with a stepped-up DUI enforcement. But while Attorney General Henry McMaster’s anti-DUI campaign to tell drinkers they can prevent DUIs by not driving is on point, the fact is that they won’t always listen; neither will the sober reckless drivers. That means defensive driving is in order. The life you save almost certainly will be your own — or that of your loved ones.