SAFE TRAVELS NC
ISSUE 16 | JANUARY 2026
Hootie and the Heroes
Happy Safe Year!
Cars go faster than most roller coasters, and wearing a seatbelt is just about the easiest thing you can do.
But did you know some people don’t know the right way to wear one? Ask any traffic officer.
This month we’ve got a how-to video courtesy of the NC State Highway Patrol. Someone you know might need to see it. When you forward it, maybe just say, “Can you believe some people don’t know this?”
We’re also introducing a new Safe Travels sponsor this month! Safe Passage is a large coalition of people and organizations seeking collaborative solutions for wildlife to safely cross Interstate 40 and other roadways in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. Hitting a bear, deer, elk, or some of the other animals you can learn about here, can be deadly for all involved.
Safe Passage balances the needs of wildlife with the growing human population in the mountains by increasing public awareness, improving connectivity for wildlife, reducing wildlife–vehicle collisions and creating safer driving conditions.
You’ll hear more from Safe Passage in future issues!
For now, we start with some unsung heroes behind vehicle rescues in North Carolina and far beyond: Hootie and Miss Wanda.
Wanda and Donald “Hootie” Creswell (seated) accept signed paddles from the rescue training community during a ribbon cutting for a new North Carolina emergency training facility.
For anyone pulled out of fast-moving floodwaters in the last 30 years, there’s a good chance their rescuer trained in Hootie and Wanda Creswell’s backyard.
The Creswell tract along the Linville River near Morganton has hosted swift water training since 1992. It still does, even though Helene swept away the family home.
“I can tell you without question that there are hundreds of people alive today because they were rescued by people that had trained there,” said Jeremy Edmonds, a long-time first responder and trainer in North Carolina.
“Incredible people,” Edmonds said of the Creswells. “Selfless public servants.”
Wanda and Donald “Hootie” Creswell haven’t charged the countless trainers and crews that used their land to stage the sort of instruction that requires fast-moving water and a safe staging ground.
People have offered, but they refused.
“I don’t really know why,” said Hootie, who got his nickname simply because “Hootie” was something he liked to say. “We just … if it saved one life, it was worth it.”
The Right Spot
The Creswell's home was about 60 feet from the first safe takeout downstream of Duke Energy’s Bridgewater Hydro Station. Before, and after, formal training began there, the Creswells would more-than-occasionally pull an inexperienced kayaker from the water.
They collected boats from people who gave up paddling on the spot.
Hootie worked at the hydro station, and when rescue trainers asked if they could use his land, he said yes. He also arranged to tweak the water flow from the powerhouse, coordinating releases with Duke headquarters in Charlotte. They’d run one generator for the beginners, lessening the water flow downstream, and two for more advanced boat training.
“They came from Ireland, the Russians, the Queen’s Royal Navy,” Hootie said. “From Texas to Maine. One from Mexico. All over the Eastern United States. I don’t know how many counties from North Carolina. I can’t tell you how many people went through the backyard.”
Anthony Killough, a rescue training specialist for the North Carolina Fire Marshal’s Office, said that “if it's not in the hundreds of thousands, we’re close.”
When the training started, some of the people didn’t know what they were doing. Sometimes they came “with Bermuda shorts, t-shirts and tennis shoes,” Hootie said. One guy wore a ski belt instead of a life jacket.
“I remember the first wet suit,” Hootie said. “I was real impressed.”
And now?
Rescue crews ready for training on the Creswell land along the Linville River.
“Everyone in the country – they look at North Carolina for what we do in water rescue,” Killough said. “We’re carrying the flag of leadership. … And that foundation comes from the Linville River there, with Hootie and Ms. Wanda.”
“Like Family”
Helene washed away the Creswell’s home, as well as the nearby house where their granddaughter lived with her family.
There’s video of the main house floating away. Hootie said he couldn’t watch it for five months.
“Everything you work for is now at the bottom of the river somewhere,” he said.
Rescuers who’d visited over the years searched the riverside, trying to find odds and ends worth saving. Then they helped the Creswell’s move into a rental home closer to Morganton.
“It’s been a very humbling experience, this whole year.” Wanda said. “They’ve just been there for us and treated us like family.”
In October, the state opened a new rescue training center in Stanly County with its own reservoir and floodgates so that trainers can flood a small concrete city to practice a range of rescue operations. Officials presented the Creswells with signed paddles to acknowledge their place in the sphere of international rescue operations.
Even with the new facility open, crews still come to the plot along the Linville River, where the Creswells are working to rebuild.
“There’s no house there, but the property’s still there so we told them to go ahead,” Hootie said.
“Don always said, ‘God didn’t just put this here for me,’” Wanda Creswell said. “Treat it like your own, and take care of it and there you go.”
This is a recurring feature profiling the first responders and Good Samaritans who risk themselves to help their fellow travelers. Got a hero you’d like to see profiled? Email us!
Every year in the United States about 730 people are killed and another 17,000 injured because of objects in the road, and most of those crashes are because people didn’t secure their load.
Don’t be the problem.
If you’re hauling something, tie it down right. Know your knots. Consider the trucker’s hitch.
Check your work and ask yourself: Would I feel safe driving behind this?
Take your cue from the North Carolina Farm Bureau’s Haulin’ Ag guide, which notes:
-
Vehicles must be loaded to prevent any of the load from falling, blowing, dropping, sifting, leaking, or otherwise escaping.
-
When hauling rock, gravel, stone, or similar substance, the load must be 6 inches below the top of the walls and covered with a tarp.
-
Heavy equipment (>10,000 pounds) must be secured with a minimum of four tie downs as close to the front and rear of the equipment as possible.
Haul it safe or don’t haul it at all!
This message is proudly brought you to by
Would you get on a roller coaster without strapping yourself in?
We’ve got an interactive Ask a Trooper this month: Sgt. Marcus Bethea shows everyone the correct way to buckle up and says not everyone does it right.
In a crash without a seatbelt, he says, “there’s basically three places you might go. …the second one being possibly into your floorboard.”
Traffic isn’t just getting worse, it’s getting different.
Americans lost an average of 63 hours sitting in traffic in 2024, the most ever measured, according to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s latest Urban Mobility Report, but the delays are also more spread out, seeping beyond traditional weekday rush hours, according to the report.
“Hybrid work capabilities, online shopping and other changes in our daily lives have reshaped when and where congestion happens,” David Schrank, the study’s lead author says. “This can create more unpredictability and make travel harder to plan.”
The report contains a wealth of information, and you can zoom in for local data.
For example: The institute says the average Raleigh commuter spent 42 hours sitting in traffic in 2024.
For Charlotte: 64 hours, which probably explains why Charlotte voters approved a new sales tax in November to fund transportation projects.
The institute also has a tool to help planners find solutions to traffic congestion that breaks down strategies by cost, impact and hurdles to implementation.
Larry Pickett Sr. (far right) and family honored by The Raleigh Sports Club Dec. 10, 2025. Larry Pickett Jr. not pictured - he was in West Point for Army-Navy game preparations.
December 10 was Larry Pickett Day in Raleigh, in honor of the local father/son duo who pulled a man from crashed car in New York State last September, moments before it went up in flames.
The official proclamation praises the Picketts for running into harms way - downed power lines made the rescue dangerous - and putting another person’s life above their own.
The rescue made national news, and because Larry Pickett Jr. plays football for the Army Cadets, ESPN aired a piece about the Picketts ahead of last month’s Army-Navy game.
“If he wasn’t there I would probably have been burnt alive,” David Denton, the man the Picketts saved, told the network.
The Raleigh Sports Club also honored the Picketts at their December meeting. Larry Pickett Sr. told the crowd to thank professional emergency responders for what they do everyday.
“If there’s a wreck 10 minutes from now … Larry Pickett is not responding,” he said. “It’s the first responders.”
Do you know what to do if a tire blows out while you’re driving?
Step 1: Don’t panic.
Any overreaction – including slamming on the brakes – might make you lose control. Here’s what the NHTSA recommends:
-
Hold the steering wheel with both hands.
-
Maintain your vehicle speed if possible and if it’s safe to do so.
-
Gradually release the accelerator.
-
Correct the steering as necessary to stabilize your vehicle and regain control. Look where you want to go and steer in that direction.
-
Once your vehicle has stabilized, continue to slow down and pull off the road where and when you judge it’s safe to do so.
In the News
NC By Train sees highest ridership in 35 years of service
- Spectrum News One
How loved ones remember Cary teenager killed in crash
- News & Observer
The most reliable car brands of 2025
- Consumer Reports
Raleigh Police restarting anti-DWI unit
- News & Observer
NC Governor announces $25 million in safe highway grants
- Governor’s Office
The NC Alliance for Safe Transportation's annual “Sweethearts of Safety” is coming up fast!
Join us Feb. 12 at the lovely Park Alumni Center at NC State University for a lunch-time celebration of some of the people who made it safer to travel North Carolina in 2025.
Get your 2026 tickets and read about last year’s winners here.
One Last Thing…
We’ve got another National Highway Transportation Safety Administration post for you to share, this time with Winter Tire Tips.
Share this with someone you want to keep safe! And you can follow the NHTSA on Instagram.
Follow us too!