As the Christmas and New Year’s holidays are rapidly approaching, state troopers across Georgia are preparing for back-to-back holiday weekend patrols. Colonel Mark W. McDonough, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety, says state troopers will be conducting high visibility patrols on the heaviest travel days of the holiday periods to remind drivers to drive safely.
The 102-hour Christmas holiday travel period begins this Friday at 6 p.m. and will end at 11:59 p.m. on Tues., Dec. 26. The 78-hour New Year’s holiday travel period gets underway at 6 p.m. on Fri., Dec. 29, and ends at 11:59 p.m. on New Year’s Day.
Last year during consecutive 78-hour holiday periods, the Georgia State Patrol reported 392 traffic crashes over the Christmas holiday period that injured 208 people and claimed the lives of eight people. During the New Year’s period, eight people were also killed. There were 595 crashes and 289 injuries reported.
In addition to the traffic crash investigations last year, state troopers issued 6,469 citations and 12,429 warnings during the Christmas holiday, and issued 6,400 citations and 10,905 warnings during the New Year’s holiday.