If you’re driving this Thanksgiving weekend, be careful, say the local police.

The reason? Area departments are adding officers for the Thursday-through-Sunday period, one of the busiest travel times of the year. The beefed-up force will stop drivers who drink or don’t buckle up.

The North Kingstown department will add two officers each day as part of a national campaign to crack down on drivers who don’t wear seat belts.

“The heavily traveled Thanksgiving weekend is one of the most dangerous and deadliest times of the year due to low seat-belt use,” said North Kingstown Police Chief Edward A. Charboneau. A little more than 80 percent of the nation’s drivers use seat belts, but the local police hope to boost that number to 100 percent.

“In the past several years, the amount of people who buckle up has increased,” Capt. Charles Brennan said. “They just need a reminder.”

The South County police are also participating in a state campaign to arrest drivers who drink.

The Westerly Police Department will add another one to four officers to the long holiday weekend, said Westerly Police Chief Edward A. Mello.

The police will use both marked and unmarked cars to stop impaired drivers, he said.

The Rhode Island Police Chief’s Association and the state Office of Highway Safety are part of the effort.

The officers won’t be confined to streets and highways.

The Westerly police will also attend the annual Thanksgiving football match between the Westerly and Stonington High Schools. Drinking alcohol at the game is illegal.

The statistics are sobering.

Fifty-five percent of all U.S. drivers and passengers killed in crashes during last year’s Thanksgiving weekend weren’t wearing seat belts, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

On average, someone in Rhode Island dies in an alcohol-related crash once a week, said Mello. Nationally, someone dies every 30 minutes in an alcohol-related accident.

If you’re going to a party, designate a driver first, Mello said. If your friends drink, drive them home, call a cab or insist they sleep over, he said.