Minnesota State Patrol: Drive safe for Fourth of July weekend

MOORHEAD, Minn. (KVRR) –As celebrations for the Fourth of July holiday weekend kick off, officials want you to stay safe in your travels.

“With a lot of summer left, we have had a number of crashes generally resulting from people driving too fast, impaired driving, distracted driving, and just people getting killed or seriously injured from not wearing their seatbelts,” said Sgt. Jesse Grabow, Minnesota State Patrol

The Minnesota State Patrol says calls the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day “the ‘100 deadliest days’ as the frequency of crashes and fatalities increase during the summer. Last year, 151 fatalities and 44 speed-related fatalities were reported.

This year, an estimated 61.6 million people across the U.S. are expected to be on the road. An increase from the previous year.

“Last year, I can tell you, nationwide, we responded to about 700,000 calls for emergency roadside rescues. The vast majority of those were simple calls related to dead batteries, flat tires, folks locking their keys in their car, and running out of gas. So, all preventable, rarely catastrophic, but we’re happy to do it,” said Skyler McKinley, Regional Director of Public Affairs AAA

With construction ongoing in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota, Grabow wants drivers to be prepared and to be cautious.

“It could be some congestion depending on construction areas, lane closures, things like that, but again, with more traffic out there could potentially mean more problems such as breakdowns, crashes, things like that. But it doesn’t have to happen if everybody just does their part to pay attention, to take their time and use good common sense,” said Grabow.