Washington drivers gave each other the best gift possible over the Christmas weekend: a significant drop in highway deaths.

The only fatality reported to date is a hit-and-run Saturday night in Auburn. During the slightly-longer 2009 Christmas holiday weekend, four people died in collisions statewide.

“Even one death is too many,” said WSP Chief John R. Batiste. “But it seems we had a much safer holiday weekend than in previous years.”

Batiste urged drivers to keep the positive momentum going for New Year’s weekend.

“If we can do this for one holiday, we can do it for all of them,” he said. “Collisions are not accidents. We have the power to eliminate them by simply making better choices.”

Those choices include:

• Don’t drive while impaired by alcohol or drugs.

• Slowing down. Winter weather makes that even more important.

• Buckling up. Wearing a seat belt helps protect you from the other person’s mistake.

State troopers also responded to fewer injury collisions during the Christmas weekend, but made more DUI arrests than in 2009. There were 192 DUI arrests made over the holiday weekend, compared of 165 over the same weekend a year ago.

Batiste says the additional arrests might have contributed to the drop in deaths.

“Every DUI we arrest is a potential life saved,” he said. “I have no doubt that some of those we arrested would have crashed had they not been caught.”

This reduction in fatalities is in keeping with “Target Zero,” the state’s goal of completely eliminating highway deaths by 2030. Highway deaths have been steadily dropping for the past five years, and the current trend puts the state in good position to meet that goal.