‘100 Deadly Days of Summer’ Sheds Light On Safe Driving In Teens

The ‘100 Deadly Days of Summer’ traffic safety campaign kicked off this week.

Tennessee Highway Safety Office Liasion Fred Sherrill said the three-month period aims to increase safety awareness among teen drivers.

“During this time of year is when most people are taking their vacation, plus there’s no school so that’s going to put more of the young drivers out on the roadways,” Sherrill said. “You put more people out there, there are more chances for people to make poor decisions or something like that. It’s going to cause crashes which leads to [fatalities].”

The national campaign highlights one of the longest and busiest travel seasons of the year between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Sherrill, who represents the THSO’s Cumberland Region, said speeding has become more prevalent in fatal accidents across the state.

“We’re seeing a rise in our fatal crashes [involving] high speed,” Sherrill said. “We’re having some issues where crashes are occurring and people are buckled up, but the reason for the drastic things that happen is that they’re running a lot higher speed. Everyone’s in a hurry and everyone wants to be there yesterday.”

Sherrill said the THSO has taken to social media to help spread traffic safety awareness to a larger audience.

“That is our biggest avenue now. Everybody does Facebook, everybody does Twitter and that kind of stuff,” Sherrill said. “If we can put that message out there just as a reminder, maybe it’s going to jog somebody’s memory, ‘well I need to buckle up today,’ then we’ve changed that attitude.”

Tennessee’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security reports over 300 total people died in traffic accidents last year between June and August. Approximately 500 teens have died in crashes since the beginning of 2014, with 44 of those deaths occurring in 2019.

The Upper Cumberland currently has the fewest amount of total traffic fatalities for 2019 at 21.