The latest tragedy came in Fond du Lac County last weekend, when three teenage girls were killed while out driving with a group of friends. Officials say the driver lost control of the vehicle, rolling it multiple times in a farm field and ejecting several passengers.

Despite the latest incident, state Traffic Safety Director Sandy Huxtable says crashes and fatalities involving teens have declined in the past decade. She credits a 2000 law that created a graduated drivers license in Wisconsin.

AUDIO: Maj. Sandy Huxtable (:19)

The graduated drivers license program restricts the ability of teens to drive for their first two years behind the wheel. It’s intended to give them more experience by controlling who can ride in the vehicle with them and the hours they can drive.

Since the law’s passage, Huxtable says crashes involving drivers between 16 and 18 are down about 25-percent, while fatalities have decreased nearly 50-percent.

WIBA’s John Colbert contributed to this report.

Huxtable says while the economic downturn and high gas prices had an effect on traffic volumes, most fatal crashes are caused by bad driving habits and irresponsible decisions, so drivers who slow down, pay attention, buckle up and drive sober deserve a lot of credit for saving lives.

Fatalities for bicyclists and pedestrians also increased slightly in 2011 compared with 2010, but there was an approximately 18 percent reduction in motorcyclist deaths,from 104 in 2010 to 85 in 2011.

It’s important to remember that impairment begins with the first sip of alcohol. And, Moen has more helpful reminders before hitting the road. “Two of the other … we call them ‘Deadly Ds’ of driving, in addition to drunk driving, is drowsy and distracted driving.”

Get lots of sleep before driving and then take plenty of breaks during long trips. Moen suggests pulling over to a safe location to take a nap if you do feel tired behind the wheel. Also, she says, it is the driver’s responsibility to keep eyes, mind and body fully focused on the task of driving. A passenger can text and navigate. If traveling alone, pull over to a safe location before performing distracting tasks.

AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report 1:21

In May of this year, Wisconsin saw the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel top the $4.11 mark, setting a new state record. AAA-Wisconsin’s Pam Moen says prices have headed down since then, although they have remained much higher than previous years.

During some parts of 2011, Moen says there were days when consumers were paying as much as $1.17 more per gallon than they were on that same date in 2010. However, Moen says the gap has shrunk significantly as we near the end of the year and currently sits at about $0.18.

Moen says the drop is good news for drivers and gives her some hope that prices might actually dip back down below the $3.00 a gallon mark. It’s unclear when that might happen though.

Moen says a number of factors kept the price up, including fluctuations in the price of crude oil, political instability in oil-producing nations, and natural disasters and weather events that slowed supply lines.

The current statewide average is about $3.21 for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:05)

Pam Moen with AAA-Wisconsin says the NTSB went much further than she expected it would, although she welcomes the proposal. Moen says it’s the first time a major transportation safety agency has endorsed the concept of a total ban on cell phone use by drivers.

Moen notes that, just a few years ago, the idea of a texting ban was hard for many states to accept. Now, Wisconsin is among 35 states with a ban in place. Moen says the NTSB’s support of extending a ban to all cell phone use could help build momentum for the idea quickly.

The NTSB says there are growing concerns about the impact of technology on drivers. The recommendation follows the review of a deadly crash in Missouri that was caused by a texting driver.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:12)

Contributed by Rick Schuh, WHBY

The new clean car guidelines offered by President Obama would require most new passenger vehicles to almost double their gas mileage over the next 13 years. They would require cars and light trucks built between 2017 and 2025 to meet an average fuel efficiency standard equivalent to 54 miles per gallon, compared to the current standard of about 28 miles per gallon.

Megan Severson with Wisconsin Environment says the higher efficiency would help cut fuel costs for many drivers, with an average annual savings of about $571 million by 2030. For the average family, that would break down to about $240 a year in savings.

Severson says it would also have a major impact on pollution. She says it would be about the equivalent of shutting down 71 coal fired power plants for a year.

Federal officials say the new standards would add about $2,000 to the cost of a new passenger vehicle. A public comment period on the proposed standards is currently underway.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:06)

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Wisconsin Public Policy Liaison John Vose says many concerns about the checkpoints are based on fallacies, like the belief that checkpoints are a lengthy inconvenience to law-abiding citizens. “True sobriety checkpoints take no longer to stop, you know, than it takes for a red light. People are not overly inconvenienced.”

Vose says typically law enforcement would announce the time and location of sobriety checkpoints in advance. “And then generally what law enforcement would do is basically pull over maybe every third car or every fifth car or something like that, ask a couple of very quick questions, and then the large majority of drivers would be on their way.”

Vose says there’s a misconception that law enforcement simply wants to use sobriety checkpoints to arrest lots of people and put them in jail. Instead, he says, people actually stop drinking or find other means of transportation rather than getting behind the wheel. He says the most successful sobriety checkpoints result in no arrests.

Lawmakers must weigh safety on the roads against a citizen’s privacy. Opponents call the random roadblocks a threat to individual civil liberties. They say stopping motorists without probable cause is unconstitutional.

Drunk driving costs the United States more than $132 billion annually.

Over 42.5 million Americans are expected to travel by road or air this year, with many of those trips getting underway today. Pam Moen of AAA-Wisconsin says about 850,000 of those travelers will come from the Badger State.

Overall, Thanksgiving travel will be up about 4 percent over last year.

For those driving to their destination, Moen says they should see a statewide average gas price of about $3.29 a gallon. Prices are down from record high levels this summer, but are still about 40 cents higher than they were at this time last year.

While snowy weather has been holding off for most of the state so far, Moen says travelers should be ready for the return of winter. She says holiday trips provide an excellent opportunity to make sure you have an emergency kit packed, including warm blankets and extra food.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:14)

Mothers Against Drunk Driving is calling on lawmakers to require ignition interlocks for all convicted drunken drivers and legalize sobriety checkpoints in the state. A new report released by MADD rates Wisconsin on its progress of implementing drunk driving countermeasures; it shows that more needs to be done.

“The challenges that we have in Wisconsin is first we are the only state in the country that does not criminalize the first offense.” MADD Wisconsin Public Policy Liaison John Vose says as a result, there’s a lower deterrence factor for getting behind the wheel while drunk. Like Wisconsin, the nation as a whole also got three stars.

Vose says that indicates a need for increased efforts to reduce and eliminate driving while drunk. “If we’re still unable to criminalize the first offense, a very good tool that many other states use that’s not used in Wisconsin … is sobriety checkpoints.”

The state recently adopted enhanced penalties for those who drive drunk with kids in the vehicle, but MADD wants more ways to combat the practice. Vose says drunk driving costs the United States more than $132 billion annually.

NOTE: The Report to the Nation is being released in connection with the fifth anniversary of MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving.

AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report 1:24

U.S. Tolling Coalition Co-Chairman Patrick Goss says “Whether you support or you oppose tolling the interstate system, it’s kind of a moot point right now because we can’t have that debate or discussion in a state like Wisconsin because the federal government does not allow it. So let’s fix that first and then we can decide if we want to have that debate.”

Goss, also Executive Director of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, says “17% of our interstates and one quarter of our nation’s bridges are structurally deficient.” He says the gas tax is not a sustainable revenue source for transportation needs. Currently, new lanes could be tolled if the state approves it, but federal law prohibits states from building tolls on existing lanes on the interstate and some highways.

“We need Congress to say ‘yes, states, we’re gonna lift this ban’ and then Congress is done; they’re out of it. It now becomes a state issue, state by state, whether their leadership wants to move forward with tolling as an option to generate revenues.”

Under a pilot program, the U.S. Department of Transportation recently allowed Virginia and Missouri to add some tolls. Goss says Congress should allow all states to do so.

AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report 1:33