Traffic was expected to be heavy this Memorial Day holiday travel period and Georgia State Patrol put out press releases early, urging caution before crowds hit the roads. Every year GSP keeps count of traffic accident and the injury and fatality rate on Georgia roads for the 78-hour holiday period beginning Friday at 6 p.m. and ending at midnight Memorial Day.

This year, the Georgia State Patrol reported a total of 15 fatalities, six of them at GSP posts and the rest from other agencies. The total Memorial Day weekend traffic fatalities reported by GSP, at 15, compare to 19 reported statewide during the same travel period last year.

Included in the figures supplied by GSP was the suicide on I-85 reported in Gwinnett County and one in Oconee County. A Winder man was killed early Monday morning on Atlanta Highway in Bogart.

The following fatalities were reported by GSP at the end of the Memorial Day weekend travel period.

Troop A (1) GSP LaFayette

Troop B (2) GSP Toccoa, GSP Athens

Troop C (4) Cobb Co. Police (3) Gwinnett Co. Police (1)

Troop D (2) Columbus Police (2)

Troop E (1) Putnam Co. Sheriff’s Office

Troop F (2) GSP Dublin, GSP Helena

Troop H (3) GSP Douglas; (1) Houston Co. Sheriff’s Office (2)

The GSP reported a total of 332 crashes with 196 injuries and the 15 fatalities. Last year during the Memorial Day travel weekend, GSP investigated 312 traffic crashes that resulted in 236 injuries and 13 traffic deaths. In the fatal crashes last year, three victims were motorcycle operators and one person killed was operating an all-terrain vehicle. Alcohol was a contributing factor in six of the 13 fatalities and eight of the nine people killed in either a passenger car or pickup truck were not wearing seat belts. Operation Click It or Ticket was instituted prior to this year's heavy travel period and remains in force until June 3.