According to the Foundation For Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, there were 268 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 2017. More than 10,000 in the country that same year. 27 people under the age of 21 died in the same year on Alabama roads, slightly more than 1,000 in the U.S. And the number of teenagers arrested for driving under the influence was 42 in 2017 in Alabama. In that same year more than 5,000 in the same age bracket in the U.S.

“A lot of time people are of the mindset it’s not going to happen to them,” said Thornton.

But there is encouraging news. As of today, state troopers in Alabama have worked 41 fewer traffic fatalities compared to this time last year, a nod to motorists paying more attention and not taking chances with their phones or drinking, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. The decrease in traffic fatalities is the largest decrease in state traffic fatalities in four years.