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Highway Patrol working overtime for Labor Day

Lieutenant Tom Iverson with the North Dakota Highway Patrol says the Labor Day weekend is always a busy time for patrol officers.

This year, Iverson says many of the state patrol's resources are tied up with the Dakota Access Pipeline protest near Cannonball. But he says the patrol is committed to keeping roads safe this weekend.

"A lot of our officers are down in that area, on a rotational basis in that area south of Mandan, so it really does put a strain on our resources across the state but we have not forgotten about the rest of the state. We will have troopers out working and responding to calls, covering crashes, and partaking in proactive traffic enforcement to keep our roadways safe."

Iverson says even though fewer troopers will be on the road than in prior years, they will still be working overtime. He says they are focused on taking necessary enforcement action with the primary focus of saving lives.

"We encourage citizens to always make the right choices - we can't force someone to wear their seat belt, or not drink and drive. Those are choices people make. However those choices do have choices, whether it's when you encounter law enforcement, or potentially in a crash resulting in injury or death. So those are things we need to encourage citizens to make better choices on - refrain from drinking and driving, wear your seat belt."

Iverson says so far this year, over 60 percent of North Dakota's traffic fatalities were not wearing their seat belt.