Georgia State Patrol Offices reported a total of nine traffic related deaths across the state during the Christmas holiday travel period which began Thursday, December 24th, starting at 6:00pm and ended at midnight on Sunday, December 27th.

Those deaths were reported in Madison, Washington, Grovetown, Hartwell, Cobb County, Villa Rica, Helena, Byron and Effingham County

The New Year holiday travel period will begin at 6:00pm Thursday December 31st and end Sunday, January 3rd.

Each travel period stretched 78 hours this year. Last year, both travel periods were 102 hours long. Troopers investigated 601 traffic crashes over the Christmas travel period that resulted in 338 injuries and 14 fatalities. During the New Year’s travel period, there were 724 crashes and 318 injuries reported.  Also, 10 people were killed on Georgia’s roads.

During the Christmas and New Year’s holiday travel periods Georgia State Troopers will also be teaming up with law enforcement officials from across the state for the “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” initiative, which is a high visibility enforcement campaign which targets impaired drivers.

During last year’s Christmas holiday period 146 arrests were made for DUI, and 349 people were arrested during the New Year’s holiday.