The state Highway Patrol next week will begin a school enforcement campaign called Operation Drive to Live.

While several schools are already out, the Highway Patrol will be talking with schools which are still in session, First Sergeant M.A. Marshburn said today.

“We will be trying to speak with schools still open and will work school zones,” Marshburn said.

The campaign begins Monday.

In a memo to troops throughout the state, Highway Patrol headquarters says the statewide effort is to promote teenage safe driving and to reduce collisions involving teenage drivers. 

The operation will be conducted from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, with the operation ending Friday, June 11.

Traffic collisions are the leading cause of teenage deaths in North Carolina and the nation, the memo notes.

Last year 139 teenage drivers were killed on the state’s highways. Many collisions involving teenage drivers occur during their commute to and from high school. Speed remains the leading cause of those deaths.