The Fayette

County Sheriff's Department, the Fayetteville Police Department and the

Peachtree City Police Department will join the Georgia State Patrol this

week in Operation ABC Mobilization: America Buckles up Children.

The Thanksgiving

campaign is aimed at cracking down on drivers who allow young passengers

to ride unbuckled. It also targets drunk drivers, since statistics show

most children under 14 killed in alcohol-related crashes are riding with

a drunk driver.

National organizers

of Operation ABC predict that many drivers will be ticketed for failing

to buckle up children and arrested for driving drunk.

Lt. Bryan Woodie

of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department said the department will have

more deputies on the road Wednesday evening and Sunday in addition to

stepped-up enforcement during the entire holiday period.

More than 2,000

kids each year are killed in traffic accidents, according to statistics.

The campaign

is sponsored by the Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign of the National

Safety Council along with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the National

Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation

Safety Board.

Over 8,000

law enforcement agencies in the United States are participating in Operation

ABC Mobilization, which began in 1997 to decrease the number of children

who are killed in crashes simply because they were unrestrained.

Since the campaign

began, child fatalities have reduced 17 percent, restraint use for infants

rose from 85 percent to 97 percent and the rate of air bag deaths has

dropped by nearly 80 percent.