From Staff Reports

AMERICUS — Law enforcement officers across the nation are preparing for a busy 2017 holiday travel season as motorists take to the highways for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.  SFC Ed Odom, Georgia State Patrol Post 10-Americus Commander, said the Christmas holiday period is 102 hours long and the New Year’s holiday period is 78 hours.
The Christmas holiday travel period begins at 6 p.m. Friday and ends at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. The New Year’s holiday travel period gets underway at 6 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 29 and ends at 11:59 pm on Monday, Jan. 1. Last year, the Georgia State Patrol investigated 392 traffic crashes over the Christmas holiday period that injured 208 people and claimed the lives of 8 people. During the New Year’s period, eight people were killed and 289 injuries were reported in 595 crashes investigated.
Odom said that he and his troopers will be patrolling not only the state highways but city streets and county roads as well.
“We will be aggressively patrolling every road in our territory,” said Odom, “and we will be especially vigilant in detecting impaired drivers, distracted drivers, speeders, and those who will not secure themselves or their children with the appropriate occupant restraint.”  He said troopers will be conducting road checks throughout the holiday periods as well as concentrated patrols in an effort to keep the holiday traffic counts as low as possible.
Odom reminds drivers to slow down, always wear their seat belt, make sure children are properly restrained, put down the phone while driving, and don’t operate a motor vehicle if you have consumed alcoholic beverages.