There’s been much to celebrate in Butler County this past week. The county held its largest annual festival and seniors from local high schools graduated and are now heading off to bright futures.

But recent weeks also kicked off a time of year in which extra caution should be considered.

Memorial Day is the unofficial start of the summer season. AAA notes that it’s also the beginning of what the organization calls the “100 Deadliest Days” of the year for teenage drivers. Crash data from 2013 to 2017 shows that fatal teen crashes during the summer are most often caused by speeding (28 percent of the time), driving impaired by alcohol or drugs (17 percent) and distracted driving (9 percent).

During the past five years, nearly 3,500 people have been killed in crashes involving teenage drivers between Memorial Day and Labor Day, according to national figures.

“Motor vehicle crashes are the leading causes of death for teenagers every year,” said Theresa Podguski, director of legislative affairs for AAA East Central. Thankfully, Butler County has bucked that trend.

According to data compiled by Butler’s Pennsylvania State Police Troop D barracks, there were no fatalities last year between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Of the year’s seven fatalities, only one in Butler County was a teenage driver.

Other areas are not so fortunate. It’s estimated that 700 people die during the “100 Deadliest Days” annually in the United States in crashes involving teen drivers, according to statistics from the past five years. The average number of deaths from crashes involving drivers between ages 15 and 18 was 17 percent higher per day compared to other times of the year.

While Butler County has remained safe comparatively, we should not drop our guard. Law enforcement, parents and teenagers should remain vigilant about safe driving behavior.

AAA Foundation’s latest Traffic Safety Culture Index found that nearly 50 percent of teens said they sped on a residential street in the past month, while 40 percent said they drove too fast on freeways.

While everyone knows that speeding or drunken driving are against the law, distracted driving is an increasingly common — and dangerous — phenomenon.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a total of 3,166 people died from distracted driving in 2017. This includes making phone calls, sending texts, eating or drinking, talking to passengers or messing with a vehicle’s stereo or navigation systems.

In other words, if your eyes aren’t on the road at all times, they’re in the wrong place.

Parents should talk about safe driving practices with their teenagers who are about to get behind the wheel for the first time. Graduating seniors experiencing a new sense of freedom should remember that they have a whole future ahead of them, and that risking it with poor driving behavior isn’t worth it.

And everyone who gets behind the wheel of a car should keep in mind that they are not only guardians of their own safety, but also that of others on the road.