Oklahoma Highway Patrol Increasing Trooper Presence For Thanksgiving

Many Oklahomans will be driving out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday this week and Oklahoma Highway Patrol said they want to remind people of a few things to keep them safe.

According to AAA, around 50 million people are expected to travel to see friends or family this year, which is decreased from the usual 55 million travelers this time of year. Many of those people will likely be driving instead of flying due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Mark Southall said that with those heavy road travel statistics comes a higher risk of heavy traffic, accidents, and deaths, so they are putting an increased presence of patrols out this week.

“Of course being away from our families around the holidays is part of the job, we do miss them but it’s our job to make sure people stay safe on the roads,” Southall said.

He is warning drivers, if they are driving recklessly or too fast, they will get pulled over before someone gets hurt.

“In 2018 we had ten fatalities and five of them were DUI-related,” Southall said. “In 2019 we had five fatalities and two of those were DUI related, so we are looking really good to lower that number again this year but it’s 2020, so we really aren’t sure what we are going to get, but we are hoping we can get those numbers down to zero.”

Southall said he wanted to remind people that if they see a trooper pulled over on the side of the road for any reason, make sure to get as far to the left as possible can not only because it’s the law, but to ensure the troopers and anyone else that may be on the side of the road with them are safe.