Keeping those celebrating safe
As you drive to the homes of relatives this Thanksgiving to get your fill of turkey and pie, it may be a time to be thankful for those who work to keep the roadways safe on the Thanksgiving holiday. California Highway Patrol Officer Skyler Tesch will be spending his Thanksgiving out on patrol, looking for activity that draws his attention, and responding to calls for service.
Tesch has worked patrol for the past eight years, consistently working on Thursdays, which happens to always be the day Thanksgiving falls on. This year, a late dinner is out of the question as he begins work on the graveyard shift at about 4 or 5 p.m.
Thanksgiving night on patrol tends to be a slow night, Tesch said, with not a lot of service calls since many people are at home or with their families that night.
However, he has been called to some significant accidents in the past in fairly isolated areas. With CHP, EMS and firefighters working on holidays, drivers involved in remote-area crashes can get treatment right away, he said.
“Everyone expects to be with their families that night and relatively free from harm. We help them do that,” he said.
Although he realizes that nobody likes to go to jail or get a speeding ticket when they’re in a rush from one place to another during the holidays and saving for Christmas, his work is all about protecting people’s reasonable expectation of safety, he said.
Tesch grew up in Calaveras County and has lived in the Lodi area for a while.
He has a wife and two
children and is one of seven siblings.
Since his schedule has been pretty consistent thus far, his family knows to schedule the big dinner at other times during the weekend, but Thanskgiving is not the big day of tradition for his family.
Plus, having much of his family spread out can make it difficult to all be in the same place at the same time. Nonetheless, he will have Christmas Day free this year, as it falls on a Sunday.
Tesch suggests that all people driving on the holiday plan responsibly and not try to cram everything into one day.
There can be plenty of time during the four-day weekend for people to spread activities out instead of speeding to get from one place to another.
“The jail and the hospital don’t serve Thanksgiving dinner, so don’t end up there,” he said.