Over 1.3 million North Carolinians are expected to travel more than 50 miles for the Thanksgiving holiday, according to AAA Carolinas.
“Nearly 90 percent of those travelers, we’re talking 1.2 million people, will be doing so with a road trip,” said Tiffany Wright of AAA Carolinas. “We’re going to see more folks than ever taking to the roads and our highways.”
The number of travelers over the Thanksgiving holiday has been steadily increasing, with this year expected as a 0.6% rise from 2014.
“When you talk about our average gas price is $2.04 right now, that’s down 73 cents from last Thanksgiving holiday,” Wright said. “So that does translate into more money in consumer’s wallets and I think that does result in people taking those close to at home trips that they normally might not have.”
She said Thanksgiving is the busiest travel weekend of the year, which makes it one of the most dangerous. Deaths on North Carolina highways rose from 12 in 2013 to 32 in 2014.
To help combat this problem, AAA encourages people to avoid driving on Wednesday, November 25 and Sunday, November 29 because they expect the heaviest traffic on those days.
“I think what we’re starting to see is more rear end crashes,” she said. “A lot of that has to go back to distracted driving.”
She said the best way to get rid of distractions while driving is to not use electronic devices, even if they are hands free or Bluetooth.
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