2011 Thanksgiving travel might be Minn.'s safest

Minnesota may have experienced its safest Thanksgiving travel period on record.

Preliminary reports show there was one traffic death on Minnesota roads during the holiday period. That happened in Norman County last Friday.

That would make it Minnesota's safest Thanksgiving travel period since at least 1974, when the Office of Traffic Safety began tracking Thanksgiving holiday traffic deaths.

Minnesota's deadliest Thanksgiving travel period on record was 1994, when 18 people died. There were four deaths during last year's holiday period.

Donna Berger, acting director of the Office of Traffic Safety, attributes the drop to increased seat belt use, attentive driving and sober driving.

So far there have been 313 traffic deaths in Minnesota this year compared with 369 at this time last year.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)