State Highway Patrol Joins Governor Cooper to Address Teen Driving Fatalities

RALEIGH, NC (April 13, 2018)…The State Highway Patrol opened its annual “Operation Drive to Live” initiative with a press event on April 13, 2018 in Nash County.  The week long initiative is designed to bring attention to the loss of life suffered from teen driving fatalities across our state.

The event was held at Northern Nash High School in Rocky Mount at 1 p.m. today.  Remarks were provided by Governor Roy Cooper, Colonel Glenn M. McNeill Jr. and Superintendent Dr. Shelton Jefferies of the Nash-Rocky Mounty School System.  Each speaker brought a unique perspective on how we all have a part in keeping our students safe each and every day.

“As a father to a 16 year old son and twin 14 year old daughters, I can tell you that from a parent’s perspective, there is no greater anxiety each day than the safety of my children,” said Colonel Glenn M. McNeill Jr.   “As parents, we have to look at what we are doing to either help develop good drivers or plant seeds of negative driving habits in our children.  We know that developing good teen drivers begins well before they start driving.”

“Operation Drive to Live” will officially take place the week of April 16th through April 20th and will be conducted each day from 6:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. Troopers will increase enforcement efforts in and around high schools and will be conducting traffic safety programs with teen drivers with the primary purpose of reducing the number of teenage related traffic collisions and deaths.