For the first time in five years, Georgia's highway deaths are on the rise, and the State Patrol is launching Operation Safe Holidays to combat the loss of life. Georgia has already recorded more than a thousand traffic deaths this year, before the holidays even began. Nearly half of the fatalities this year were people who were not buckled up, an average of about one per week. The patrol says that saving lives is as simple as buckling a seat belt and the single most effective thing travelers can do to survive a crash.