LOS ANGELES, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- California Highway Patrol (CHP) officials have announced Wednesday that a "maximum enforcement period" will be implemented for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, the busiest travel in a decade in the western state of the United States.
"Thanksgiving weekend, traditionally one of the busiest travel times in America, can also be one of the deadliest on the roadways. To help motorists avoid tragedies, the California Highway Patrol will have all available officers on patrol during a Maximum Enforcement Period," according to a statement of CHP on its official page on Facebook.
The maximum enforcement period will start from Wednesday evening and continue through Sunday.
A total of 31 people died in collisions on roads and highways under the CHP's jurisdiction during the 2016 Thanksgiving weekend. That figure rose to 55 when all California police agencies' fatalities were counted, City News Service reported.
Some 902 people were arrested on suspicion of traffic violations during last year's CHP maximum enforcement period.
Around 50.9 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more away from home this Thanksgiving, a 3.3 percent increase over last year. The 2017 holiday weekend will see the highest Thanksgiving travel volume since 2005 with 1.6 million more people taking to the nation's roads, skies, rails and waterways compared with last year, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
The Automobile Club of Southern California is expecting this year's Thanksgiving holiday to be the busiest one locally for travel since 2007, with 3.87 million residents expected to get away for the long weekend. That's a 3.6 percent increase over last year's 3.74 million travelers. Statewide, 6.26 million are projected to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday, also the highest number of Thanksgiving travelers since 2007.
