As traffic safety professionals, we spend a lot of time looking at problems and figuring out how to address them. That’s our job and the reality is there are still too many crashes, too many injuries and too many deaths – virtually all of them preventable. It can be easy to get discouraged.
I think it’s sometimes important to step back – especially at this gratitude-focused time of the year – to remember how far we’ve come and to recognize the great people, organizations and hard work that got us here. So, here’s my traffic safety gratitude list for this Thanksgiving season:
- More people are buckling up in Minnesota. A September enforcement campaign found 94.7% of vehicle occupants were buckled up, the highest rate in a decade and the fourth consecutive annual increase. A double reason for gratitude: Seat belt use by young men and pickup truck drivers increased. They typically have the lowest rate.
- While we’ve seen a disturbing rise in crash deaths the last few years, we’ve come a long way as a state. Traffic deaths in Minnesota peaked in 1968 at 1,060, a time when there were fewer vehicles on the road and fewer miles driven. In 2022, the most recent year of final data, that number was 444. We know we can and must lower that number to as close to zero as possible.
- Minnesota’s law enforcement community is committed to traffic safety. Each year, thousands of local, county and state officers are on the road, doing their best to educate and enforce our state’s laws around excessive speed, impairment and distracted driving.
- We have great educational resources from the state and national government and from traffic safety organizations. We also have great supporters like State Farm and AAA Minnesota who help fund critical traffic safety campaigns.
- We have you, our Minnesota NETS community. Your commitment to taking the traffic safety message into the workplace and sending it home with employees makes an enormous difference.
On a personal note, I’m deeply grateful to mark the second anniversary of our DriveSafeMN website, this blog and our monthly newsletter. Thanks to all of you who have let us know that you appreciate and use the information and the many educational tools you find on the website.
As you sit down with loved ones this holiday season, count your blessings. Be sure to buckle up, avoid distractions and, if you want that glass of holiday cheer, designate a sober driver. Happy Thanksgiving!
Yours in traffic safety,
Lisa
Minnesota NETS Coordinator
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