BATON ROUGE - The holiday hustle and bustle is in full swing, and the roads are packed like Santa's sleigh!

As holiday travels are underway this weekend, DOTD is asking drivers to be mindful of others while navigating the roads. Much of the "jingle bell jam" is caused by drivers from out of town, said spokesman Rodney Mallett.

"Folks don't exactly know what they're doing or the rules of the road in Baton Rouge," Mallett said.

Drivers who are passing through the capital area might not be aware of the changing conditions due to construction, such as the lane shift westbound on I-10 at the City Park Lake, or overnight lane closures. 

"We're going to have extra traffic from people who don't know what they're doing in Baton Rouge, we're going to have construction on one side. Ya know, we're going to have narrow lanes and we're going to have barriers so there will be a change. So we need people to pay extra attention," Mallett said.

With more drivers on the road, also comes the increased chance for accidents to occur. In November and December of 2021, a total of 42 people were killed on the road. 

Mallett, hoping Louisiana never reaches a number of holiday season fatalities that high again. 

"Wear your seat belt, don't drive distracted, don't drive impaired, don't speed, don't tailgate, give yourself enough room to stop. That's what we were talking about the other day, you see people rear-ending each other quite a lot. A lot of that is tailgating, speeding, and phones."