Thanksgiving holiday travel light for early morning drivers

WARREN, Ohio - It was smooth sailing for early morning drivers this Thanksgiving Day.
“Everyone's been nice, [It’s a] holiday so everyone's been driving good for the most part,” Gary Winthorpe, a Thanksgiving Day traveler coming from Kent State to Youngstown said.
“The roads have kind of been dead too,” Michael Bandler, another Thanksgiving Day traveler added. “There's no one kind of coming out or going in but once we hit the highway we saw a couple cars.”
Roads were pretty sparse as people headed to their holidays destination to see family and friends. It was a similar sight Wednesday night, Thanksgiving Eve, which is known as the biggest drinking holiday of the year.
Troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol post in Warren said they had no major accidents or incidents.
Last year across the state, there were 12 major accidents that killed 13 people. Half of those involved drugs or alcohol.
This year, to try and make the roads safer the state is covering the cost of some rideshares. Ohioans can get $20 off their Lyft through the weekend if they use code 2024PLANARIDEOH. A limited number of credits are available each day and riders must redeem it within 24 hours.
An initiative that hopefully gets people to call a ride instead of getting behind the wheel this holiday season.
“Or like, rely on friends that maybe haven't gone out or designate someone as a DD just to make sure that everyone gets home safe,” Bandler said.
“It's one of the most important things like it's stupid you could ruin someone's like don't do it,” Winthorpe said.