ANDREWS TxDOT is visiting high school football games this fall to reach Texans in the state’s key oil and gas production regions with important traffic safety messages. On Friday night, the “Be Safe. Drive Smart” campaign will remind Andrews County football fans that preventing deadly crashes requires driving at a safe speed, staying alert and giving large trucks plenty of space.
The interactive exhibit will be at Andrews High School’s Mustang Bowl stadium, 918 NW Mustang Drive, from 6 p.m. to halftime. It is meant to remind Texans to drive carefully in oil and gas regions.
High-traffic energy exploration and production areas present unique challenges for motorists because large trucks can reduce visibility and drivers must contend with slow-moving traffic on two-lane state and county roads.
In 2022, more than 78,000 traffic crashes occurred in the state’s five main energy sectors—the Permian Basin, Eagle Ford Shale, Barnett Shale, Anadarko Basin and the Haynesville/Bossier Shale—resulting in 1,072 fatalities last year. These traffic deaths accounted for nearly 25% of the state’s total traffic fatalities last year. In 2022, there were 26,031 traffic crashes in the Permian Basin region (which includes Andrews County), resulting in 394 fatalities and 889 serious injuries. This was a 3.1% increase in traffic fatalities over the previous year.
Failure to control speed and driver inattention are ranked as the top two contributing factors in crashes in the five main energy regions.
TxDOT’s “Be Safe. Drive Smart” campaign is a key component of #EndTheStreakTX, a broader social media and word-of-mouth effort that encourages drivers to make safer choices while behind the wheel to help end the streak of daily deaths. Nov. 7, 2000, was the last deathless day on Texas roadways.
