STARTING POINT
SAFE TRAVELS NC
ISSUE 6 | MARCH 2025
A Little Patience
Welcome to another edition of Safe Travels NC, a free monthly email newsletter from the North Carolina Alliance for Safe Transportation.
This month we’re highlighting some of the folks working to make us all a little safer. We appreciate them and hope you do, too.
We’ve also done a little math for you this month, as you’ll see in some of the items below. As you travel North Carolina’s highways, we hope you’ll think about how little time it takes to slow down, focus up, be patient, and keep yourself and others safe.
“At the end of the day, we all want to save lives.”
TIFFANY WRIGHT
NCAST Vice Chair
That’s the point of this newsletter.
It’s also the reason the NC Alliance for Safe Transportation exists, and it’s how NCAST Vice Chair Tiffany Wright described the winners of this year’s Sweethearts of Safety Awards.
Nine winners were honored last month at an awards luncheon the day before Valentine’s Day: Seven state lawmakers working to pass safety legislation, a Guilford County DWI task force that repeatedly goes above and beyond, and an NC State researcher who has dedicated much of her life to improving safety and supporting families who’ve lost someone in a crash.
“We’re not talking about numbers,” said Tracy Russ, from the NC State Institute for Traffic Research and Education. “We’re talking about stories cut short. We’re talking about empty dining room chairs.”
TRACY RUSS
Winner of the 2025
Mark Ezzell Lifetime Achievement Award
Russ won The Mark Ezzell Lifetime Achievement Award, named for the current head of the NC Governor's Highway Safety Program. In Ezzell’s words, Russ has “dedicated her professional, and much of her personal, life to making an impact on safety.”
She helped found NC Vision Zero, where the goal is to completely end roadside deaths and injuries. She’s trained hundreds of traffic engineers and law enforcement officers to improve road designs and traffic enforcement. She’s been a leading researcher on traffic safety. She helped found the NC chapter of Families for Safe Streets, which amplifies the voices of people who’ve lost a loved one. And she’s overseen North Carolina’s annual World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
Russ said her experience tells her that ending road deaths is not a pipe dream. We can build smarter and safer roads, she said. We can ALL speak up about dangerous driving.
Crashes “are not one-time events,” Russ said. “They are not accidents that can’t be predicted or prevented. They are a symptom of a broken system.”
Guilford County DWI Task Force
This task force took 421 intoxicated drivers off the roads in and around Guilford County last year.
Those numbers “represent lives saved, families protected and a community made safer,” Shelli Breadon, state program specialist for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said in presenting Sgt. Stephen Garlick and his task force with their Sweethearts of Safety Award.
More than that: They worked with young drivers, educating them on safe driving habits. They are mentors. They are “advocates for safer roads,” Breadon said.
Garlick was a man of few words in accepting the award with his team.
“We will continue to pursue this,” he said.
Legislators of the Year
NCAST honored seven members of the North Carolina General Assembly for their focus on safety issues, and especially for working to pass a handsfree cell phone bill and to find state funding for wildlife crossings that will prevent dangerous crashes involving bears, deer and other animals.
The handsfree bill, which would make it illegal to drive with a cell phone in your hand outside of a few exceptions, has been introduced every legislative session since 2009. It polls well with the public, 29 other states have a law like it and the number of North Carolina lawmakers backing it has grown.
But it hasn’t passed, yet.
This year’s legislative Sweethearts of Safety have shown “legislative tenacity,” NCAST Chair Joe Stewart said.
“Sometimes that kind of tenacity is just what’s needed to achieve a legislative victory,” Stewart said.
Sen. Jim Burgin, a long-time backer of the bill, deputized everyone in the awards luncheon crowd, asking them to call their representatives and senators and encouraging them to each talk with 10 people about the bill.
“I almost got hit yesterday,” Burgin said. “I looked over - they were on their phone.”
Sen. Kevin Corbin noted the support for the measure runs close to 90% in polls.
“Only 81% of people believe in God,” he quipped. “We will get this law passed. … I’m not sure when.”
This year’s Legislators of the Year:
Sen. Jim Burgin
Sen. Kevin Corbin
Sen. Michael Lazzara
Sen. Julie Mayfield
Rep. Sarah Crawford
Rep. Frank Iler
Rep. Phil Shepard
Lawmakers have had some success finding funding for wildlife crossings. Two years ago they got $2 million in the state budget for the issue in Haywood County. And, in Eastern North Carolina, the federal government has pledged $25 million for a crossing that will protect people as well as endangered red wolves.
Supporters are hoping for more funding so that crossings can be added along Western North Carolina highways that have to be rebuilt anyway after Hurricane Helene.
“We know where the problems are,” said Tim Gestwicki, part of the Safe Passage Coalition. “It takes resources, so we’re grateful that we have legislators who see that.”
SLOW DOWN for Farmers!
There are more than 200 crashes a year in North Carolina involving farm vehicles, tractors or farm equipment, and they’re often deadly.
In fact, fatalities are FIVE TIMES more likely in accidents involving farm vehicles.
As spring unfurls, please, if you see a tractor on the road, be patient and slow down!!
Many farm vehicles travel less than 25 mph. A car traveling 65 mph would close a gap the size of a football field in less than five seconds.
Driving 20 miles per hour may seem irritating, but cutting your speed from 65 mph to 20 mph for a mile only delays you 2 minutes.
TWO MINUTES, and it might save a life!
Rural roads carry less than half of America’s traffic, but they account for over half of the nation’s vehicular deaths. Please, be careful and respect farmers.
This message is proudly brought to you by
Ask a Trooper
“What’s NC’s move-over law?”
You asked, the NC State Highway Patrol answered.
Got a question? Ask it in a short video and send it here.
A Minute of Your Life
How much time do you think it would add to a trip if you drove 45 mph through a 2-mile highway construction zone instead of going 65 mph?
Bear in mind that 31 people died in work zone crashes in 2023, just in North Carolina. There were 2,800 injuries and 7,500 crashes, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
It’s less than a minute. Slowing down — for 2 miles — costs less than a minute of your time.
But speeding? Looking at your phone? That could cost a life, because speeding and distracted driving cause more than half of work zone crashes, according to NCDOT.
Be careful even if you don’t think anyone is working. As The Charlotte Observer noted last year, you can still be ticketed if you speed through an empty work zone.
The minimum fine is $250!
8 Minute Interview
Former state Rep. John Bradford on what it takes to get legislation passed in North Carolina and the push to strengthen the state’s distracted driving laws. Since we didn’t have an 8 minute Interview last month, this installment is a little longer to make up for it :)
Pedestrian Death Spike
Pedestrian deaths shot up more than 80% over the last 15 years, almost entirely due to crash increases after dark on major roads, according to a new study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
These crashes happen most often in disadvantaged neighborhoods where people rely on walking to get where they’re going, or to a bus stop, and where areas are poorly lit and have poor or no sidewalks, the study found.
These roads are often mulit-lane arteries, with lots of traffic and stop lights only at widely spaced intersections. Yet they connect people to key areas, like shopping centers.
The solution: Investing in smart designs and safety upgrades in areas where those changes will make the biggest impact. That means designs that anticipate human mistakes, and it requires state and local governments working together regardless of who owns a roadway.
“The problem is not easily solved by simply urging drivers and pedestrians to watch out for each other,” said Tiffany Wright, spokesperson for AAA-The Auto Club Group.
Even so, AAA calls on drivers and pedestrians alike to be careful.
Drivers must minimize risky behavior, like speeding and texting. They should be extra careful at night.
Pedestrians should wear bright clothing, stay in well- lit areas and use sidewalks and crosswalks as often as possible.
If there’s no sidewalk, walk facing traffic, not with your back to it.
In the News
Legislators eye car tech to slow down habitual speeders
- Plurbus News
Op-ed: Add wildlife crossings as we rebuild WNC highways
- The News & Observer
Causey: Safe driving can help with insurance premiums for teen drivers
- The Coastland Times
Americans’ confidence in air travel dips after crashes
- The Associated Press
Let’s Talk Maintenance
Keeping your vehicle running right is important, and you don’t want to be driving down the interstate when you realize something’s wrong.
Some things are cheap and simple. Windshield wipers, for example. If yours leave streaks, or squeak, or skip across the glass, they probably need replacing.
If the blades look cracked or worn, they probably need replacing.
Your local auto parts store can help you find the right ones, and some stores will help you install them. If not, it’s usually simple, and you can find videos online to walk you through it.
One Last Thing…
Speed Kills Men
Speeding is a contributing factor in nearly 25% of all fatal crashes in North Carolina. Usually it’s a man behind the wheel, and usually it’s men - particularly young men — who die.
Here’s how it breaks down, based on NCDOT crash data from 2018 through 2022.
NCAST | Safe Travels NC
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