SENECA — Although AAA predicts that holiday travel will be down 2.4 percent over last year, South Carolina Highway Patrol troopers and local law enforcement will be out in full force looking for impaired drivers.

In fact, SCHP announced this week that it would have a 31-member statewide DUI team patrolling the roadways over the Fourth of July holiday, monitoring speeding hotspots and putting impaired drivers behind bar.

Locally, Oconee County Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Crenshaw warned that his deputies would join with other law enforcement and highway safety officials in reminding holiday revelers that drinking and driving could be an expensive proposition if you’re caught.

“With nearly half of all traffic fatalities over the July 4th holiday being alcohol related, we are asking everyone to help us get the word out that buzzed driving is indeed drunk driving,” Crenshaw said. He added that the “just one more for the road” attitude is a recipe for disaster and urged those celebrating to have a sober designated driver.

Crenshaw said driving while impaired is hardly worth the risk given the serious consequences, which include jail time, the loss of a driver’s license, higher insurance rates and many other unanticipated legal expenses and fines.

Law enforcement has no intentions of lowering its guard despite a prediction from AAA that fewer motorists will be taking to the road compared to 2008.

AAA expects more than half a million South Carolina motorists will travel 50 miles or more from home this weekend.

Gasoline prices this year are averaging about $1.42 cents a gallon less than last year’s average price of $3.86, but that still is not enough to entice

South Carolinians to take to the road, AAA reports.

AAA points to high unemployment, economic woes and uncertainty about the future as the reasons why motorists are staying close to home this year.

The SCHP said that while highway deaths have increased, so have DUI arrests. In 2006 the Patrol made 8,650 such arrests. That number jumped to 9,625 in 2007 and to 11,348 last year. That’s an increase of almost 32 percent over a three-year period.