
The weekend, which starts the summer travel season, is the official launch of a statewide summer campaign to improve the safety of New Mexico roads.
Police plan increased patrols to look for drivers and passengers without seatbelts. There will be checkpoints to catch drunken drivers.
Transportation Department figures show 81 people have died in road accidents across the state in the first four months of this year, with 36 of those deaths involving alcohol.
There were 374 people killed in traffic crashes in New Mexico last year, an increase of more than 6 percent from 2011. About two-fifths of the crash victims weren't wearing seat belts.
Alcohol was involved in 41 percent of the state's highway fatalities last year.