Did you know the Fourth of July holiday is one of the deadliest holidays of the year in Colorado?

Impaired Driving Fatalities Up In the Summer

Traffic volume is always heavy during the holiday travel period and unfortunately, a certain number of drivers make the fateful decision to drink and drive. The Colorado Department of Transportation says unbuckled and impaired driving fatalities trend upward during the summer months.

27 Fourth of July Holiday Deaths In Colorado In Three Years

Last year, 9 people died on Colorado roads over the Fourth of July holiday making 27 traffic deaths over the last 3 years. Comparatively, in the last three years, six people died during the New Year's Day period, , 4 over Memorial Day weekend, and 11 over the Labor Day weekend.

So far in 2022, there have been 300 deaths on Colorado roads. That is up just slightly from a year ago at this time when there had been 295 traffic fatalities. Nearly half of Colorado's traffic deaths have occurred in the Denver area.

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DUI Enforcement In Full Swing This Weekend

DUI enforcement will be in full swing in Colorado over the holiday weekend. Nearly 50 law enforcement agencies across the state will be increasing patrols, which may include DUI checkpoints or saturation efforts in certain areas.

Meanwhile, CDOT is reminding motorists of the importance of buckling up this weekend. Surprisingly, about 14% of Colorado drivers don't wear a seatbelt, which is higher than the national average of 10%. The most recent Click It or Ticket enforcement period yielded a total of 907 citations that were issued.

Don't Take A Chance

This is just a reminder and an admonition to not drink and drive this holiday weekend. The potentially fatal consequences are not worth it. It's not only your life that is in jeaopardy, but the lives of everyone else on the road. Additionally, buckling up could be the difference between life and death. It's possible you won't ever "need" your seatbelt, but is that a chance you are willing to take?

Drive safe this weekend, my friend. Let's celebrate America and let's all do what we can to make it through the weekend alive.

The Most Dangerous Colorado Counties to Drive Based on Fatal Accidents

While six Colorado counties managed zero fatal accidents in 2020, the rest were not nearly as safe to drive in.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

 

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