Two people from Bandon died in a head-on crash on Highway 101. A medical helicopter touched down near Scottsburg to race a seriously injured pickup passenger to a hospital. Three more crashes were tied to drunken driving. There were other crashes, too: a tipped semi-truck, a three-car smash-up, a motorcycle spill.

These happened just in the past week on highways in Coos and western Douglas County.

Don’t blame befuddled tourists. Most of these crashes involve local people, and a lot of the blame goes to drivers who weren’t paying attention.

If you drive around town, you see them on almost every block. Drivers talking on their cell phones, or fumbling with radios and CDs. People speeding up through yellow lights. Heedless leadfoots ignoring the speed limit on Highway 101 between towns.

When you consider the tourist traffic and road construction right now, it’s crazy to drive 70 mph on the crowded highway, but people do.

Just since school let out for the summer, seven people have died in highway crashes between Winchester Bay to the north, Bandon to the south and Coquille to the east.

It’s not that the cops aren’t working hard. But the blue line is thinner than ever. The Coos County Sheriff’s Office has cut deputies. State troopers, handling many of the county’s life-threatening emergencies, are too busy to park on the highway with radar guns.

“Coos Bay had 25 troopers in 1975,” Lt. Steve Smartt said this week. “We’ve got seven now.”

Do the math: That’s seven troopers covering the highways seven days a week.

Life-ruining wrecks can be prevented. You know what you have to do. Turn off your cell phone. Select your music before pulling into traffic. No text messaging. (Yes, some people actually do that.) Slow down.

The traffic’s not going to go away, and money’s not going to materialize to hire more troopers or deputies. The only way to make our roads safer is for us to drive smarter.