Fifteen die on Georgia roads over Christmas travel weekend

ALBANY — The long Christmas travel weekend ended with Georgia’s traffic fatality count at 15, according to the Georgia Department of Public Safety.

The Christmas weekend travel period began at 6 p.m. Friday and ended at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. A final count is expected to be reported by DPS on Wednesday, but the agency has updated numbers on its Twitter account.

According to the DPS Twitter account, Georgia State Patrol Post 29 in Paulding County worked three of the traffic deaths, a single fatality and a double fatality, the only auto crash listed that resulted in multiple deaths.

Single traffic deaths also were worked by GSP Post 22 at Waycross, Post 47 at Forest Park, Post 32 in Athens, Post 27 in Blue Ridge, Post 46 in Monroe. There were two incidents worked by Post 33 in Milledgeville.

Five fatal crashes were handled by city/county law enforcement agencies: Albany police, Gwinnett County police, Floyd County police and the sheriff’s offices at Richmond and Cherokee counties.

The number of Christmas holiday fatalities reported by Tuesday morning had exceeded the eight who died in the shorter 78-hour period last year. The Georgia State Patrol in 2016 also reported 392 traffic crashes over the Christmas holiday period that injured 208 people.

This Christmas period, troopers investigated 515 crashes. They also made 192 arrests for driving under the influence while 7,323 citations and 12,313 warnings were issued.

This year’s travel period was 102 hours long because Christmas fell on a Monday.

Last week, Col. Mark McCullough, commissioner of DPS, said law enforcement would be out in force for the back-to-back year-end travel periods of Christmas and New Year’s. He said troopers are watching especially for three factors that are common in fatal wrecks, sometimes in combination.

“Most fatal crashes during a holiday period in Georgia involve an impaired driver, speed or the person killed not utilizing a seat belt,” McCullough said, adding that State Patrol officers would be watching closely not only for those three factors, but also for aggressive drivers.

“Drivers are also cautioned to avoid distractions inside the vehicle that would divert their attention from the road,” he said.

There’s only a short break between the Christmas travel period and the New Year’s weekend period, which is a day shorter at 78 hours, the same length of time as last year. It will begin at 6 p.m. Friday and end at 11:59 p.m. New Year’s night.

While there were more traffic crashes last year during New Year’s weekend travel, there were the same number of fatalities as Christmas weekend — eight. There were 595 crashes and 289 injuries reported as 2016 closed and on the first day on 2017.

State troopers are teaming with local-level law enforcement agencies in keeping traffic deaths and crashes down. Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over is high-visibility enforcement campaign that targets impaired drivers, while Operation C.A.R.E. (Combined Accident Reduction Effort) has a goal of reducing the number of crashes, injuries and fatalities by balancing high-visibility enforcement with educational outreach.

“Now through the end of the year is the time when we see a noticeable increase in the number of impaired drivers on our roads,” McDonough said.

During last year’s Christmas holiday period, 190 arrests were made for driving under the influence, and 289 people were arrested on DUI charges during the New Year’s holiday. McDonough said motorists should plan holiday activities so that they don’t pose a risk on the road.

“Choose a sober designated driver before partying or, if you plan to drive, don’t drink,” he said.