DANVILLE, Va. – Millions of Americans will be traveling over the next 48 hours and Virginia State Police will be out in full force enforcing traffic laws and looking for drunken drivers.

Kurt Erickson is coordinating this year’s Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign and says 82 alcohol checkpoints will be manned throughout the holidays, including 13 in Southside and Southwest Virginia. There will be 144 “saturation patrols” just to identify drunk drivers in this part of the state.

He says the message is to plan ahead with a designated, sober driver to avoid having an accident or spending the night in a drunk tank.

Since the campaign started in 2002, drunken driving fatalities have nearly been cut in half in Virginia. But Erickson says the number ticked back up by double digits last year and State Police want to prevent a recurrence in 2019.