Holiday travel in the Fountain City
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - The holiday travel period is winding down but not slowing down.
People in our area said that they are seeing a lot of bad driving habits and people in a rush, but others are traveling during the ideal times suggested by Triple A and not seeing those things as much.
Nathan Littlejohn was all for letting freedom ring on Tuesday, July 4 for Independence Day after getting to where he was going in one piece.
”I’ve noticed a lot more speedier drivers,“ he said.
Speedier drivers is also something Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman’s deputies were seeing on the roads of Columbus.
The sheriff posted a picture on Facebook of a deputy clocking a driver going over 100 miles per hour on Veterans Parkway. His warning to drivers, slow it down.
“Don’t be in a hurry,” Orlando Ryder, resident of Columbus said.
On the other hand, Kerrie Brower, who is in the Fountain City visiting her son from Michigan, said she is seeing good driving habits on roads.
“We were just talking about that. We feel that people are a little more chill, at least on the highways that we were on,” she said.
The National Safety Council is reminding everyone that car crashes peak during the Fourth of July. They estimate 619 people may be killed on roads this year during the holiday.
“I try not to travel on the holidays because I know most people will travel on the holidays,” Ryder said.
According to Triple-A, 43.2 million people are on the roads during this year’s long holiday travel period, up 2.4% from last year and 4% from 2019.
“I mean yeah it be a lot of people on the roads. It’s a holiday,” resident of Columbus, Erica Richard said.”
“185, there’s more traffic,” Ryder said.
The agency suggested the best time to travel on the Fourth is after 6 p.m., and the best time Wednesday, July 5 is before 2 p.m.
This is advice Mikie McBride and her daughter visiting from Nashville try to stick to.
“Usually if we go, we usually wait till we get off work. I know when she comes down from Nashville, she does the same thing. She’ll get off work about 5 o’clock their time. That puts her right in the middle of Birmingham traffic so she tends to kind of wait a little while and leave later at night.” she said. “So, we do try to travel later at night just to avoid the high traffic times.”
If you happen to find yourself in an accident, Triple A has a few tips on what to do:
- Make sure you have a copy of your insurance paperwork in your car
- You may also want to carry a first aid kit and a spare tire
- Exchange information with the other driver, such as insurance and license plate information
- Call the police and file a report
- Take pictures of any damage to your car and the other car
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