CANTON — Despite higher gas prices, many motorists are still taking to the roads this holiday weekend, and the Georgia State Patrol is urging caution by drivers during the 78-hour holiday period that started Friday evening and ends at midnight Monday.

The Cherokee Sheriff’s Office Traffic Enforcement Unit “will be out in force conducting saturated patrols in high traffic areas looking for impaired drivers,” said Public Information Officer Lt. Jay Baker.

Traffic crashes in Georgia during the 2011 Labor Day period claimed the lives of nine people, according to crash statistics from the Crash Reporting Unit at the Georgia Department of Transportation.

During the 78-hour holiday period last year there were 2,370 traffic crashes and 942 injuries also reported.

Impaired drivers, speeders, people not wearing seat belts and people who do not properly restrain children are among the problems law enforcement are worried could cause problems.

“These are the primary contributing factors in fatal traffic crashes in our state,” Col. Mark McDonough, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety, said in a release.

State troopers will be patrolling the secondary roads, as well as the interstates throughout the holiday period, he said in the release.

“Past experience has shown the majority of the fatalities over a holiday weekend occur on the state routes, county roads and city streets,” he noted.

Operation Zero Tolerance, the nation’s high visibility DUI enforcement program, is also under way now through the end of the Labor Day holiday period.

Woodstock Police are partnering with other agencies across the state for Click it or Ticket, which cracks down on drivers and passengers who do not wear seatbelts.

The highest number of traffic fatalities for a Labor Day holiday period occurred in 1968 when 35 people died in traffic crashes, and the lowest number was recorded in 1939 and again in 1995 with seven fatalities each.