All available State Troopers put on Christmas travel period patrol

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - You better watch out, you better not speed. It won’t be Santa watching to see if you’ve been naughty or nice on Alabama’s roadways this Christmas. That role will fall to an increased number of Alabama Law Enforcement Agency State Troopers.

ALEA Secretary Hal Taylor says the agency is putting all available troopers on patrol across the state during the Christmas traveling period. That period officially runs from midnight on Dec. 20 through midnight on Jan. 1.

“Our goal is simply to save lives,” Taylor said.

AAA says the holiday travel will break records this season with experts expecting more than 115 million people to travel, with 105 million of those driving.

The number of traffic crashes tends to go up around the holidays. The Center for Advanced Public Safety at the University of Alabama offers these tips to keep you and your family safe:

• Do not drink and drive
• Have everyone in the car buckle up.
• Delegate all cell phone use to a passenger to keep the driver from distractions.
• Keep speed down because every 10 mph reduction in speed cuts the probability of being killed in a crash in half.
• Back off instead of tailgating, stay out of the blind spots of large trucks, and let aggressive drivers pass.

“These driving behaviors are among the most deadly,” according to Taylor. “Let’s all do our part during the holiday season, as well as the rest of the year, to #ArriveAliveAlabama.”

In addition to the extra troopers, the Alabama Department of Transporation is doing its part to reduce delays. ALDOT will suspend temporary lane closures on Alabama interstates from 6 a.m. Dec 24 through 6 a.m. December 26, and again from noon Dec. 31 to 6 a.m. Jan. 2.

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