Law enforcement ramps up safety measures for New Year’s Eve amid record travel surge

As the new year approaches, along with new years eve celebrations, there are a number of ways law enforcement and travel experts are urging you to follow to keep yourself and others safe.

AAA projects 119.3 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home from Saturday, December 21 to Wednesday, January 1.

This year’s domestic travel projection surpasses the previous record set in 2019 by 64,000 travelers.

AAA also expects an additional 3 million travelers this holiday season compared to last year.

Additionally, most of those travelers will be getting to their destinations by car.

AAA says 90% of holiday travelers will be driving, making it the most popular way to travel. 107 million people are expected to travel by car, 2.5 million more than last year.

“The southeastern region is the busiest travel region of the country…You just need to prepare for that, add traveling time…Make sure you preparing for that extra time so you don’t feel like you’re running late or running behind schedule,” said Clay Ingram with AAA Alabama.

You can find more information on busiest roads, as well as the best and the busiest travel times expected here.

Adding to the normal busy holiday travel dangers: new years eve celebrations.

Ingram also emphasizes the importance of having a designated driver if you plan to drink.

Another option is planning to use ride share, or, simply spending the night wherever you may be celebrating.

Lieutenant Jeremy Burkett with the Alabama law enforcement agency says troopers will be out in full force on Alabama roads.

“We’ll have all of our available resources out. Especially in certain locations, doing a variety of enforcement activities…We’ll have drivers license check-points set up, we’ll have saturation details…we try to be targeted. We try to go back and look at the locations and the places that we’ve seen issues before,” said Burkett.

Another new year eve danger that often goes overlooked, celebratory gunfire.

It’s not only dangerous, but against the law.

“Just because you don’t see them…doesn’t mean a stray bullet cant hit somebody, injure them, or kill them,” said Burkett.

“When you fire a weapon, you have to be responsible for every round that you fire,” he added.

The Jefferson county Sheriff’s Office also took to Facebook to warn central Alabamian’s Friday.

From January to September of this year, there were 34 reported stray bullet deaths across the U.S.