The nation’s high-visibility enforcement program to catch impaired drivers begins Friday and runs through Jan. 4, 2009.

Georgia Commissioner of Public Safety Col. Bill Hitchens says drivers should be alert for the possibility of encountering drunken drivers on the road.

Government officials said Wednesday drunken driving accidents increase each year during the holiday season.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data for 2002 through 2006 shows nearly 40 percent of fatal crashes in the last two weeks of December involved drunken drivers.