State police announce holiday checkpoints

MILFORD, Conn. (WTNH) -- More people will be traveling this Labor Day weekend and more police will be watching the roads.
       
Millions of people are hitting the roads this holiday weekend. Theresa Raytar from Easton has to ride the traffic on I-954 before riding the waves in Rhode Island.
 
"Gonna go surfing and lie on the beach with my cousin," she told News 8's Kent Pierce.
 
"Were you worried about traffic on a busy holiday weekend," Pierce asked.

"I was concerned, that's why I wanted to hit the road early."

To keep that traffic from getting too gnarly, State Police will be out all weekend with extra patrols and even DUI checkpoints.

LINK: Checkpoints for Labor Day Enforcement.pdf

And you don't want to have to pay for a ticket, not when you're already paying $4 a gallon or more at the gas pump. That's up 12 cents from last year at the this time. The AAA says the cost spike started with trouble at refineries out west.

"Facilities were offline for a period of time, then the south was affected by Hurricane Isaac. A lot of the refineries were taken offline periodically," explained AAA Spokesperson Fran Mayko.

But despite the price of gas, the AAA says the number of people traveling this weekend will hit a post recession high.

"This year we're estimating 33 million folks will either drive, fly or take some other mode of transportation," Mayko said. "Overall, it's a 3% increase."

"We left at 5 this morning," said Bill O'Shea from Virginia.

"Talk about beating the traffic," Pierce said. "How has it been?"

"Great. No traffic at all."

That's a good plan for a family driving from Virginia to Cape Cod, but even they know they won't miss the holiday rush entirely.

"Yeah, Getting over that Cape bridge will be a mess, yeah," O'Shea said.

The later you wait, the more you will hate the traffic. One more note from police, if you see someone driving erratically, like they might be driving drunk, that is an emergency and you should call 911.