Valdosta Daily Times. December 27, 2022.
Editorial: Stay safe on the roadways
More travelers than ever are expected to hit the roads during this holiday season that continues through Jan. 2.
According to the AAA Auto Club, nearly one in three Americans (more than 100 million) have already or will travel 50 miles or more during this period.
AAA said driving remains the most popular mode of travel for year-end holiday travel, with more than 90% of travelers driving to their holiday destinations.
Contributing to those increases, motorists will find low gas prices as they hit the roadways.
The bad news is that AAA expects to rescue hundreds of thousands of motorists during the holiday travel period, with the primary reasons being dead batteries, lockouts and flat tires.
AAA is recommending that motorists check the condition of their battery and tires for winter driving before heading out on a holiday getaway. Also, have vehicles inspected by a trusted repair shop.
Law-enforcement agencies and the department of transportation are also expressing concerns about impaired driving during the holiday travel season.
According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s Traffic Safety Culture Index, one in five licensed drivers (21%) who drink at least occasionally reported having driven when they thought their alcohol level might have been close to, or possibly over, the legal limit in the past year.
Remember buzzed driving is drunk driving.
Then, there is the danger of distracted driving.
Texting, emailing, taking and watching video and other forms of distracted driving are illegal in Georgia and present a real danger to drivers, passengers and everyone on the roadways. Distracted driving kills.
We hope our readers have a safe and enjoyable holiday season and do not allow it to be ruined by exercising bad judgment.
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Brunswick News. December 28, 2022.
Editorial: Guns have no place in celebrating the new year
The new year is often a time of reflection and celebration. Some people take the time to think about what changes they want to make in their lives. They often resolve to stick to these changes when the calendar flips over to another year.
Those resolutions don’t always stick for the people who make them. There is one thing, however, we would like to see people resolve as we move from 2022 into 2023, and its how people celebrate the holiday. Let’s ring in the new year without any gunfire.
Noisemakers are a common item used for celebrating the new year. Fireworks are a classic staple of New Year’s Eve, but they were illegal for a long period of time. Some people go for a different type of noisemaker — one that makes most people jump in fear when they hear it. Some choose to shoot their guns in the air instead of fireworks.
This is an incredibly dangerous and reckless thing to do. We have this little thing called gravity on Earth, and its purpose is to bring back down those things that go up.
Unless you have some rocket-propelled bullets made by NASA that can escape the Earth’s gravitational pull, whatever you shoot into the air will come back down with the ability to hurt or even kill whatever it hits.
You need to look no further than the rude awakening one Brunswick home got as they rang in 2019. A residence on Albany Street heard a loud noise shortly after it officially became 2019. What caused the disturbance? It was a bullet that had been shot in celebration tumbling back down to the ground, piercing the home’s roof and landing in a bathtub.
Thankfully, nobody was in the bathtub when the bullet made its unwelcome appearance. Had someone been, or had the bullet hit another portion of the home, it could have seriously harmed the residents who lived there.
If you want to ring in the new year with a big bang, fireworks are now legal. When used properly, they are a safe way to show your enthusiasm.
The Golden Isles has already seen too many incidents with guns this year — some ending in injuries and even death. Let’s not start the new year on a tragic note. One way to make sure of that is to keep any guns holstered this New Year’s Eve.
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