ATLANTA — The Sunday after Thanksgiving has been designated by the U.S. Senate as “Drive Safer Sunday.”
“We must do a better job of educating all drivers to be safer on the road,’ ” U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said in a news release.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day on the highway, thereby increasing the chances for wrecks, officials said. The “Drive Safer Sunday” resolution encourages motorists, trucking firms and law enforcement agencies to work together to make the roads safer for all travelers during the holidays and throughout the year.
“As a father and a grandfather, I share the concern families have when their loved ones are traveling on the road,” U.S. Sen. Chambliss, R-Ga., said in a news release. “Too many holidays end tragically due to the careless and reckless behavior of motorists and it is my hope that this resolution will serve as a reminder to those traveling over the Thanksgiving holidays and all year long to be vigilant, alert, and careful.”
In the past, the resolution has been named in honor of Cullum Owings, a college student from Georgia who was killed in a crash while driving back to school after Thanksgiving 2002. Owings’ parents started Road Safe America after Cullum’s death.
“The death of almost 40,000 people a year in more than 6 million highway crashes in America is an unchecked epidemic in this country,” Stephen C. Owings, co-founder of Road Safe America, said in a news release.