Turkey and dressing, presents and Santa Claus. The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are a couple of the most enjoyable times of the year. Either occasion—or any occasion for that matter—can be ruined, however, by an automobile accident.

More people are on our roadways during these times, so the risk of an accident is multiplied. So, our state law enforcement agencies have announced that the next round of “Take Back Our Highways” sessions will be held for one week before Thanksgiving and one week before Christmas. The campaign focuses on sobriety checkpoints and patrols and has resulted in many tickets and arrests in the past.

The “Take Back Our Highways” initiative is a productive way to make our holiday trips safer, though we wish such sessions as the ones coming up this year weren’t necessary.

Every available state trooper, including many whose normal duties don’t include road patrol, will join with local law enforcement agencies to crack down on drunken, according to a press release. Police will also be using nine recently acquired BAT-mobiles at the DUI checkpoints. These vehicles are equipped with breath alcohol testing equipment, allow for on-scene processing of impaired drivers and serve as temporary holding facilities.

With the manpower and technology at their disposal, our law enforcement officers are surely well prepared to make our highways safer during the holiday season. And the mere threat of a ticket or an arrest is surely enough to keep many would-be drunk drivers off the road.

Ideally, though, every day would bring another session of the “Take Back Our Highways” campaign. Troopers could always spend a lot of time and effort to keeping drunk drivers off the road, and these people would always know someone was watching them.

But resources are always limited, and our law enforcement officers do the best job possible.