TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Thanksgiving is a time to enjoy the holidays with family and friends. The Indiana State Police and the Indiana Department of Transportation just want you to be safe while doing so.
Smells of the kitchen are filling the air in many homes around the country and holiday traffic is slated to pick up as well.
The Indiana Department of Transportation is estimating many more travelers on the road this holiday season.
“AAA is anticipating over this holiday season, 53 million people on, out and about leaving home for the holidays. That’s a 12 percent increase over last year,” Debbie Calder, communications of director for the InDot said.
To make sure everyone is safe, Indiana State Police Sergeant Matt Ames says there will be extra patrols on the roads through Sunday.
“The Indiana State Police believes that this is going to be the largest influx of traffic especially since after COVID last year that there’s going to be more people out on the roadway this year,” Sergeant Ames said.
Sergeant Ames says many things can cause accidents on the roads but most of them are preventable.
“Number one the most important thing that we see is that people tend to, when they get together with their family, they tend to consume some alcohol,” Sergeant Ames said. “However they don’t make a way to get home. Not this past year but years before we’ve had several accidents that occur because of people driving under the influence. If you plan to go out and have a good time, especially on Wednesday night before the actual Thanksgiving make sure that you have a way to get home.”
To help make things a little easier for drivers, InDot communications director Debbie Calder says many road projects currently in progress will be scaled back for the holidays.
Most of our highway maintenance and construction projects will halt work over the holiday weekend to increase roadway mobility and safety for the traveling public,” Calder said. “InDot directs its contractors to pull back barricades and barrels as safely as possible to open up as many lanes.”
According to the Indiana State Police over 2,300 accidents were reported over the Thanksgiving weekend last year. Of those, eight were fatalities.
