Distracted Driving Leading to Highway Fatalities

Between 2000 and 2007, the Allstate Insurance Company study found that 100 fatal teen crashes were recorded in Mississippi during the holiday season. According to spokesperson, Allison Hatcher, 16 of those teens died over New Years alone.

Hatcher: The study is part of Allstate's campaign called Home for the Holidays. And the primary goal is to talk to teens about safe driving. Because not everyone knows that car crashes are the number one killer of American teens.

Distractions and inexperience behind the wheel are often to blame. So, Allstate has developed a Parent-Teen Driving Contract available on line to help parents open the line of communication before they hand over the keys.

Hatcher:Texting, talking on the phone, joking around with friends in the car, playing with the radio. If we can encourage teens to focus on the road and eliminate some of those distractions, we can help as many teens as possible, come home for the holidays.

Of course it's not always the teen driver that is at fault. State Senator Hillman Frasier knows that all too well.

Frasier: My nefew was a sophomore at Hinds Community College. He was visiting his parents and he decided to take his girlfriend back to campus. A drunk driver ran into the car, killing both of them instantly. It was a very tragic loss for both families.

DUI arrests are up and the fatality rates have been falling. Mississippi Highway Patrol Captain Johhny Rawles says that's due in large part to an increased presence of Law enforcement on the highways.

Rawles: These men that represent this agency, know too well what it's like to have to speak with a family that involves a fatality. Especially during the holidays. We hope to be able to reduce and prevent that.

Capt Rawles says checkpoints which have proven effective in the past, will be utilized again this week to get unsafe drivers off the road. But Tricia Raymond, Executive Director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving - Mississippi says the best protection starts before you get behind the wheel.

Raymond: Designate a sober driver and stick to that decision. Do not drive drunk. There's a possibility you could kill or injure someone and change their life forever.

In 2007 three hundred two people were killed on Mississippi roadways in drunk driving crashes. For MPB News I'm Patty Davis