TULSA, Okla. — A press conference was held at Saint Francis Children's Hospital on Thursday to educate people on how to avoid injuries and deaths on the water and roads this Labor Day weekend.
The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Safe Kids Tulsa Area and Tulsa Police discussed Labor Day weekend safety at the conference.
FOX23 spoke with Ranger Lauren Enloe with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers at the Keystone Lake Office.
She said they want to make sure people are safe in and around the water.
"Making sure that you have another person that you're swimming with, making sure that people know what your plans are for the day, just making sure that you're saying safe, wearing that life jacket," she said.
Enloe said they want to emphasize the importance of wearing life jackets that are fitted properly depending on age and weight.
"We wanna make sure everybody's wearing that U.S. Coast Guard approved properly fitted life jacket," she said. "For the different sizes, different ages, the littler kids, they have the neck pillow on the back to keep their head above the water."
FOX23 spoke with Lt. Chris Arnall with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol at the conference.
"We're not saying don't drink, we're just saying don't drink and get behind a wheel," Arnall said. "It's a pretty simple decision."
Arnall said drug impaired driving, specifically marijuana has gone up.
"It's amazing how many people we troopers arrest for DUI drugs and they're using marijuana, and they will actually tell is, 'Well because I have a medical marijuana card I thought it was ok for me to drive," he said. "No, it's still an impairing substance."
"It's not any different than alcohol," he said. "If you're over 21 you can buy alcohol and you can drink it, but you still can't get behind the wheel impaired. It's the same thing for marijuana."
"No one puts a gun to your head and tells you to get behind the wheel driving impaired, that's a decision that you make," he said.
FOX23 also spoke with Austin Raska with Safe Kids Tulsa.
"It's so important because this is one of the deadliest weekends of the year," he said. "We have a lot of fatalities every year from this weekend whether that be driving, boating, drownings, alcohol impairment, it's just one of the most dangerous times of the year every year."
Raska said when it comes to keeping kids safe while driving, the biggest thing is having them properly restrained.
In 2021, Oklahoma had 21 fatalities of children from driving accidents, and out of those 21 fatalities, 14 were unrestrained.
He said that was double the number of unrestrained fatalities in 2020.
"One child being injured from being unrestrained is one too many, so we want to get that number going down," Raska said.
Raska said it's important to make sure children are restrained even when traveling short distances, because the majority crashes happen within a five-mile radius of the house.
"Even if it's just for a short distance, down to the boat ramp, or to a friend's house or family's, making sure they're restrained," he said.
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