Police in the Tristate are targeting a deadly mix of speed, drunk driving and seat-belt violations as the summer party season draws to a close this weekend.

        “The number of people killed in traffic crashes is twice that killed by homicide,” said Lt. John Born, spokesman for the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

        “But we can predict pretty much why they are going to die and when they are going to do it,” he said.

        That's why troopers will be working overtime during the Saturday-Monday Labor Day weekend in Ohio, where 13 people died in crashes during the same period last year.

        Eight of the deaths were attributed to alcohol.

        State troopers and local police in Kentucky and Indiana, which collectively saw 14 deaths last Labor Day weekend, are doing the same.

        Despite high gas prices, more people are on the road on holiday weekends, and that typically begets a rise in traffic accidents, Indiana State Police Sgt. Scott Beamon said.

        “I think you have major congestion with all the holiday travelers, and on top of that, you have people going too fast,” he said.

        Indiana State Police will put 155 additional troopers on duty in marked and unmarked cars and airplanes to keep errant drivers on major arteries in check.

        In Kentucky, troopers from the Dry Ridge post plan checkpoints at various locations in a nine-county area that includes Boone, Campbell, Grant and Pendleton.

        Officers will check drivers for alcohol consumption, licensing, insurance and safety violations. Post officials declined to release checkpoint locations, but said they will be in problem areas.

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