Drive Safe

How to drive safer this holiday season on North Texas' risky roads

Everyone wants you to get there in one piece.

Photo by Ryan Wallace

The holiday season is filled with family gatherings and road trips, but it’s also a time when traffic crashes spike. According to Drive Aware North Texas, every four minutes and 23 seconds, a crash occurs in North Texas. Every eight minutes and 49 seconds, someone is injured. And every 10 hours and 19 minutes, a life is lost.

With nearly 60,000 injuries and more than 800 fatalities each year, the numbers are sobering. This holiday season, when you drive over the river and through the woods, keep in mind these ways to be safer on the road.

Speeding: The leading cause of crashes
From 2020 to 2024, speeding contributed to more than 444,000 crashes in the North Texas region, including over 4,200 fatal injury crashes. That’s more than 32% of all accidents.

Most speeding crashes occur between noon and 6 pm — prime travel time during the holidays. Slowing down isn’t just a suggestion, it’s the first step toward saving lives.

Distracted driving: Keep your eyes on the road
Distractions come in many forms: texting, calls, social media, eating, or even interacting with your vehicle's touchscreen. Between 2020 and 2024, distracted driving caused more than 266,000 crashes and 1,059 fatalities. The real number may be even higher, as many distracted driving incidents go unreported.

Tips to reduce distractions:

Silence and stow your phone; enable the “Do Not Disturb While Driving” feature.
Set your playlist and navigation before hitting the road.
Secure pets, kids, and cargo to prevent in-car distractions.
Eat, drink, or groom only when parked.
Limit conversation and allow passengers to manage texts or directions.

Impaired driving: Plan ahead
Alcohol, drugs, certain medications, and drowsiness are factors in more than 64,000 crashes from 2020 to 2024, including 4,125 fatal crashes. Impairment peaks at 2 am, making late-night travel especially risky.

Ways to stay safe:

Plan your ride before drinking.
Designate a sober driver.
Use a rideshare service and keep your phone charged.
Take turns as a designated driver with friends or coworkers.
Ask a bartender for assistance securing a safe ride home.
Remember: A DWI can cost up to $17,000 in fines and fees, and can impact your record for years.

Fatigue and aggression: Don’t let them take the wheel
Driving tired slows reaction time as much as alcohol. Before long trips, aim for 7-9 hours of sleep, take breaks every 2 hours or 100 miles, and pull over for a short nap if drowsy. Avoid driving during your body’s low points of late night and early morning.

Aggressive driving escalates risk even further. Keep a safe following distance, merge courteously, avoid road rage, and don’t let impatience push you to speed. Arriving a minute late is far better than putting lives at risk.

Join the movement: Drive distraction-free
Here’s a simple way to think about it: if something requires your hands, your eyes, or your attention while you’re driving, it’s a distraction. Distracted driving isn’t just risky for you, it can be deadly for every nearby driver, pedestrian, bicyclist, and worker.

Take the National Safety Council's Just Drive pledge, and resolve to drive distraction-free during the holidays and into 2026.

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Find more safe driving resources from the North Central Texas Council of Governments at Drive Aware North Texas.

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beyond the stacks

Texas public libraries deliver billions in economic impact, study says

dallaslibrary.org/

Dallas shines a lot brighter with its public library system.

A new statewide study examining the economic impacts of public libraries has revealed they have generated over $3.8 billion in value to local communities — a return of $4.74 for every $1 invested.

The report, "Beyond the Stacks: Measuring the Economic and Community Value of Texas Public Libraries" was conducted by third-party consultancy JBK Economics Group in partnership with the Texas Library Association. About 300 of the total 513 public libraries in Texas participated in a survey for the report.

A major finding from the survey revealed that public libraries create billions in economic value for the communities they serve at a fraction of what it costs to pay employee wages and benefits, operating expenditures, and capital expenditures. About 11,200 jobs were directly and indirectly supported by public libraries, the report found.

The report found its $4.74 to $1 ratio by adding up the total value of the services provided by these institutions (an estimated $2.48 billion), and comparing it to total expenditures ($808.6 million).

"Public libraries had about the same economic footprint as the Texas motion picture and sound recording industry ($2.9 billion in Gross Domestic Product in 2024) or the Texas paper manufacturing industry ($4.0 billion in Gross Domestic Product in 2024)," the report said.

Many Dallasites are already familiar with Dallas Public Library's expansive catalog and programming, but there are many more services the library provides that might fly under the radar. A few examples include access to subscription-based research databases and news outlets, free notary services, free admission to local arts and culture events through Culture Pass Dallas, seed libraries, and maker spaces for creative endeavors. Individual branches also provide free Wi-Fi, computer access, meeting spaces, tax assistance, and job help.

Residents outside Dallas also have access to services at several other local libraries, depending on their address. For instance, Plano Public Library offers free cards to residents and for residents in reciprocal cities like Allen, The Colony, Frisco, Garland, McKinney, Richardson, and Wylie.

These are additional services and partnerships that Texas public libraries commonly provide, per the survey results:

93 percent provide voter registration and/or serve as voting locations
84 percent provide partnerships with local social services agencies
82 percent provide job application assistance
68 percent facilitate applications for government benefits
38 percent provide on-site social services
30 percent provide telehealth rooms and/or resources

"Public libraries are practical, welcoming and rooted in the communities they serve — they are unmistakably Texan," said Texas Library Association executive director Shirley Robinson in a press release. "This study puts a dollar value on the opportunities libraries create every day. Whether someone visits a library to apply for a job, access the internet, learn a new skill or simply find a new favorite book, those services create real value for Texans and their communities."

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