All holidays come with their own brand of hazards.

Heavy holiday traffic sees its share of accidents and some law enforcement agencies in Richmond County are exacting initiatives to avert speeders and drunk drivers.

“There’s a lot going on to stop drunk driving,” Rockingham Police Chief Robert Voorhees said.

According Maj. Billy Kelly of the Rockingham Police Department and Region 6 Coordinator for the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, all law enforcement agencies in Richmond County, and surrounding counties, will be conducting numerous traffic stops between Thanksgiving and the beginning of 2010.

This time of year does see somewhat of an increase but, “not necessarily because of Christmas parties end-of-year parties, but families and friends getting together for the holidays,” Kelly said.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol Office in Hamlet reported that last year during a two week CARE campaign, an initiative starting on Nov. 25 and ending Nov. 29, they responded to 12 accidents in their jurisdiction within four days.

Two of which were verified alcohol related accidents and three were speeding related.

“We’re not saying those were necessarily the major contributing factors,” said Vivian Roberts, office assistant with the Highway Patrol office said. “But they were involved.”

Statistics provided by Kelly indicate that of the 1,453 North Carolina traffic fatalities in the past year, 140 were alcohol related.

Statistics like this are why mutual aid agreements are formed, according to Voorhees.

Voorhees explained that aid agreements allow multi-county checkpoints and give other law enforcement agencies full jurisdiction to arrest and hand-out citations to traffic violators when given permission.

“So don’t take for granted an Anson police officer going to class at RCC,” Voorhess said.

In addition to the CARE campaign, the Highway Patrol, along with other law enforcement entities, are taking part in Operation Slow Down to discourage local speeders and those passing through.

The operation is also part of the Governor’s Highway Safety Program which set out to help law enforcement and drivers keep roads safer.

“Both concentrate on speeding drivers,” Roberts said. “The difference is CARE focuses on the Thanksgiving holiday.”

Kelly also noted the several candlelight vigils throughout North Carolina during December in honor of those who have died.“The best outcome if you drink and drive is that you’ll see your car on the back of a wrecker,” Voorhees said. “Because you’re been arrested for DWI, not because you’ve been in an accident.”