Someone has died on a Texas road every day for 20 years, says TxDOT
AUSTIN, Texas - A person has died in a crash every day for the past 20 years here in Texas.
“This is not something to celebrate. This is really to remind us how precious life is how quickly you can lose your life if you’re not paying attention,” said TxDOT spokesperson Diann Hodges.
TxDOT is hoping to bring awareness so that more lives aren’t lost on the roadways through its “End the Streak” campaign.
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“Every single day we’ve had at least one person die on our roadways and typically we are averaging about 10 people a day,” said Hodges
For Hodges, the push to have a deathless day on Texas roads is personal as she lost a dear friend in a crash.
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“We worked side-by-side, every single day and she was one of the funniest people I’ve ever known. Loved to play pranks, she was always happy, always brought light to everybody she was around she had a couple children, those are the two most important people in her life and you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who had anything bad to say about Barbara McCarly and she was unfortunately killed on a crash on 2222,” said Hodges.
While the pandemic decreased traffic in the Austin area, the deaths continued. “Unfortunately we didn’t, we did not have a deathless day. Unfortunately, we saw more people taking advantage of the fact that there was less traffic on the road and speeding,” said Hodges.
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Texas has already seen more than 3,000 deaths on the roadways this year.
According to TxDOT, the two main things drivers should do when traveling is to wear a seat belt and focus on the road by limiting distractions and putting down the cell phone.