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AAA predicts fewer drivers on the road for July 4

AAA Carolinas expects about a 2% decline in travel for the July 4th holiday. They’re estimating 988,500 state residents traveling during the five-day holiday period. Most of the decline is attributed to the shorter holiday period… last year the 4th fell on a Wednesday, this year on a Thursday. Some of the blame is also attributed to gas prices which, while mostly flat for the past two months, are 8% higher than a year ago. A press release from AAA Carolinas refers to July 4 as “the deadliest day of the year,” noting 22 traffic fatalities over the July 4th holiday last year… 10 involving a drunk driver. The state Highway Patrol is conducting a Booze It & Lose It campaign through July 7.

George Olsen is a 1977 Havelock High School graduate. He received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1982 where he got his first taste of non-commercial radio working for their student station WUSC. After graduation he worked about five years in commercial radio before coming to work at Public Radio East where he has remained since outside of a nearly 3-year stint as jazz and operations coordinator at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the early 1990s. On his return to eastern North Carolina he hosted classical music for Public Radio East before moving into the Morning Edition host position and now can be heard on All Things Considered. He also hosts and produces The Sound, five hours of Americana, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk weekday evenings on PRE Public Radio East News & Ideas, and is a news and feature producer for Public Radio East.