Drive Defensively This Labor Day Weekend

CARS.COM — If you are reading this: We don’t want to lose you, so be safe out there on this Labor Day weekend. The National Safety Council estimates that 421 people will be killed in car crashes over the holiday weekend.

Related: Harvey, Rising Gas Prices May Affect Labor Day Drivers

NSC estimates another 48,400 will be injured seriously enough to require medical attention during the end-of-summer holiday weekend from 6 p.m. Friday until 11:59 p.m. Monday.

“Many families will use Labor Day weekend to make their final summer memories before kids return to school,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, head of the safety advocacy group, in a statement. “We want that last hurrah to be fun, not fatal. When you are on the roads, be alert and drive defensively — making smart decisions could be the difference between a relaxing long weekend and one spent in the emergency room.”

In many communities, it’s now actually more a break after getting the kids back to school in August. Enough so that it’s become less a holiday for distance travel; a couple years ago, AAA stopped even giving driving estimates for it as it does for other holidays. But given that more crashes happen close to home, that doesn’t necessarily make the long weekend safer. And people are driving more again, thanks to low gas prices and a better economy: 3.2 trillion miles in 2016, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

The NSC also emphasizes that the most crashes aren’t “accidents” at all, but are easily preventable incidents resulting from obvious hazards such as drunken driving. It urges holiday revelers to designate a driver who will skip alcohol, marijuana and other drugs.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also wants you to think before you drink, noting that for Labor Day 2015, the most recent data available, a third of the 460 fatal crashes involved drunken drivers. NHTSA says its Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign will be in effect this holiday weekend with support from police agencies nationwide. It also offers free phone apps to help get a sober ride home: for iPhone here and Android here.

Beyond staying sober, the NSC offers other tips for getting back home safely:

• Buckle up, and that means every occupant on every trip.
• Have kids in properly installed child-safety seats appropriate to their height, weight and age. (Get help here.)
• Don’t drive tired. Fatigue is a major cause of crashes, and not just on long trips.
• And here is a tough one for the most people: Do not use a smartphone behind the wheel, not even hands-free, which still is distracting. No texting, no talking, no fiddling with the navigation app, according to NSC research.