10PM: Police encourage drivers to not get out of their vehicles on the freeway

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SALT LAKE CITY — A near record number of people are expected to travel this holiday weekend, including an estimated 2.5 million motorists in the Mountain West who are driving 50 miles or more to their destination, according to the American Automobile Association.

The Utah Highway Patrol announced Wednesday that an extra 189 troopers will be on the freeways to make sure motorists get to their destinations safely.

"We hope when you get out on the freeways you see a lot of troopers," said UHP Col. Michael Rapich. "We're going to have troopers out there in marked cars, we're going to have motor(cycles) out there, we're going to have troopers out there in unmarked cars looking for those people who are driving just way too fast, making aggressive lane changes and putting everybody else at risk."

The Fourth of July weekend accounts for the highest average of deaths per day due to drunken driving, and unbuckled drivers and passengers of any of the year's holiday weekends in Utah, Rapich said.

Over the past 10 years, two-thirds of all deaths on the freeways over the July Fourth weekend have involved intoxicated drivers or unrestrained occupants, he said.

"If we can get everyone to keep the alcohol out of the cars, to put their seat belts on, it just means we can decrease the likelihood someone is going to die on our freeways this holiday weekend by 60 percent. If we can get everybody to do the speed limit we can reduce it by another 30 percent," he said.

The Memorial Day weekend marked the start of what the UHP refers to as the "100 Deadliest Days of Summer," or the time when the majority of fatal crashes happen. Rapich said Utah got off to a rough start during the first two weeks of that season.

There have been 38 people killed on Utah's freeways since the Memorial Day Weekend, and 126 for the year.

That's just a little below Utah's rate from last year, which Rapich said was not good because last year the number of traffic fatalities increased.

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The new UHP colonel said troopers will be looking for intoxicated and unbuckled drivers statewide from St. George to the Idaho border.

"If we see someone not wearing a seat belt, we're going to stop them and have a conversation about that," Rapich said,

They will also be concentrating efforts on the Wasatch Front to look for aggressive drivers. Rapich said cars are made today to go faster than ever, but there are also more distractions in cars than ever before.

"What really is a big problem is when you see one person who needs to be going faster than everyone else," Rapich said. "I hope everybody knows, we're making no secret about it, that we're putting unmarked cars out there on the Wasatch Front to look for those drivers specifically."

Big travel weekend

Nationally, AAA estimates more than 43 million people will be traveling this weekend, or about 5 million more than last year. In the Mountain West, the number of travelers is expected to be the highest it has been since 2007, and could wind up as the busiest summer travel season ever.

AAA-Utah spokeswoman Roylane Fairclough cited a robust economy, residents having more disposable income and low gas prices as reasons for the increase in the number of travelers.

Rolayne Fairclough, spokeswoman for the American Automobile Association, speaks in Taylorsville on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. (Photo: Hans Koepsell, Deseret News)

She cautioned motorists to check their cars now, including fluids and tires, before hitting the road. Fairclough also warned drivers about getting "mesmerized" or having tunnel vision after they've been traveling for a couple of hours, and encouraged drivers to pull over and walk around every 100 miles or two hours to "kind of get your body recalculated."

The AAA will also be offering its Tipsy Tow program again on July 4. If a person feels they are too drunk to drive, the AAA will send a tow truck to take the driver and his car anywhere in the valley up to 10 miles away. The reason AAA-Utah began the program, Fairclough said, was because "people would take a chance driving because they didn't want to go get their car the next day."

Motivated troopers

Asked whether his troopers are ready to put in the extra hours this weekend, Rapich said he isn't worried about his troopers not being motivated.

"They are the ones that have to go and respond when tragedy happens and when horrible things happen on the freeway. They are the one that have to go and make notification to family members and tell them that someone is not going to come home because something very horrible has happened. They don't like that. They know firsthand how important what we're doing is," he said.

"We're out there to make sure everyone stays safe, has a good time, and if someone makes a very stupid decision to drive while they've been drinking, we're going to have a lot of troopers out there to catch them before they do something horrible to somebody else." Email: preavy@deseretnews.com Twitter: DNewsCrimeTeam

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