The state is cracking down on people who drive without seat belts during the heavily traveled Thanksgiving holiday.

The holiday, which will be celebrated Nov. 26 this year, is known as one of the most dangerous and deadliest times of the year to drive because of low safety belt use.

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, which launched Click It or Ticket on Nov. 16, says law enforcement will be looking out for Georgia motorists who violate the law and threaten their safety during the Thanksgiving travel period, Nov. 25 through Nov. 29.

This year AAA projects that 982,000 Georgians will drive 50 miles or more this Thanksgiving to visit relatives. Those numbers are up 3 percent from last year, when high gas prices kept many people home.

Concentrated patrols will be checking for seat belt violators on interstate highways by day and seat belt road checks will take place on state and county roads at night.

The dual enforcement strategy is designed to reduce high-fatality crash-counts during the deadly Thanksgiving travel period.

Last year, Georgians had 3,815 crashes during the November holiday. Statistics indicate that many people died in those crashes because they didn’t buckle up.

Last Thanksgiving, 19 Georgians died during 102 hours on the road. Another 1,457 were injured.

Nationwide, 40 percent of all traffic crash victims killed during the Thanksgiving holiday travel period were not wearing their safety belts.

Bob Dallas, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety director, says it is just so clear that safety belts save lives.

“And yet day or night, unbuckled drivers and their passengers continue to pay the price with their lives,” he said.

“That’s why we always need to buckle up. Otherwise, it’s just a never-ending formula for fatalities.”