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'Blackout Wednesday', Thanksgiving Eve, is a huge night for drunken driving, stats show

Posted at 2:50 PM, Nov 22, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-22 18:59:11-05

CINCINNATI -- The night before Thanksgiving is a notoriously huge night for bar activity. Unfortunately, it's also a huge night for drunken driving, according to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation.

Between 2012 and 2016, more than 800 people have died in alcohol-related car crashes on and around "Blackout Wednesday" and the Thanksgiving holiday. That means it's the deadliest holiday for U.S. roadways, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

This year, the NHTSA is pushing a "Make it to the Table" campaign to urge drivers not to drink and drive on Thanksgiving Ece.

The sheer number of cars on the road around Thanksgiving also increases danger on the roadways. According to AAA, we'll see the highest Thanksgiving travel volume since 2005 with 1.6 million more people taking to the nation’s roads, skies, rails and waterways compared with last year. AAA and INRIX, a global transportation analytics company, predict travel times in the most congested cities in the U.S. during the holiday week could be as much as three times longer than the optimal trip.

See the full Thanksgiving holiday travel forecast here