Holiday weekends typically see an increase in vehicle crashes and drunken driving, so authorities are encouraging people to buckle up, travel sober, and count on being stopped by an officer if they don’t.

Local law enforcement and the Montana Highway Patrol began performing extra patrol May 23 and it is expected to continue through June 5.

“This is more about saving lives than writing tickets,” Kalispell Police Capt. Wade Rademacher said. “But if you get pulled over not wearing a seat belt, count on getting a ticket.”

As of May 16 there had been 61 fatalities on Montana highways in 2016, up from 42 fatalities in 2015.

“I’ve been on the scene of far too many crashes that were survivable if people had clicked that seat belt,” Rademacher said.

The months of May through August are typically the most deadly in Montana, with 43 percent of all fatal crashes in the past 10 years taking place in those months.

Montana Department of Transportation Director Mike Tooley thanked law enforcement for ramping up enforcement.

“It is unacceptable for one more person to die on Montana roads,” Tooley said.

The number of fatalities in vehicle crashes in Montana in 2015 was 224, up from 192 in 2014. Of those 2015 crash fatalities, 70 percent were not wearing seat belts.

“Last year’s numbers are very concerning,” said Alyssa Sexton, a nurse and trauma system manager at the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. “As we track motor vehicle crash patients treated in Montana hospitals, 2015 saw a spike over the previous five-year average in unrestrained occupants treated as well as an increased number of patients who were transferred to out-of-state facilities for specialized care.”

Others were left seriously injured.

“Our state suffers when people don’t wear seat belts,” Tooley said. “Not only do Montanans lose loved ones or deal with the challenges of life-changing injuries, but we also pay heavily in financial costs through increased insurance rates, public health programs, unpaid medical bills and work-loss time.”

Extra patrol is paid for by the Montana Department of Transportation under the Vision Zero program, which aims to prevent all highway deaths in Montana.