Wilkes Traffic Deaths Lowest Since 2004

Assuming there are no more traffic deaths tonight, Wilkes will end the year with ten fatalities due to crashes. It's the fewest in five years. Highway patrol troopers say of the ten who died in Wilkes this year, seven were not wearing seatbelts when they wrecked. troopers were increasing enforcement of the state seatbelt law due to the high percentage of people not wearing them in highway fatality cases. The Journal-Patriot reports seven of Wilkes County's 14 highway deaths in 2008 and seven of the county's 23 highway fatalities in 2007 were a result in part of people not wearing seatbelts. Five of the county's highway deaths in both 2006 and 2005 were people not wearing seatbelts. The total was four in 2004. 2004 was the last time fewer than ten people died in Wilkes county traffic.