Millions of people took to the roads this past holiday weekend. Seventeen of those travelers were killed on Virginia’s roadways during the busiest travel time of the year.

State Police say an unusually high number of people took to the roadways. The scene on Interstate 81 is much different Monday from the pile-ups that occurred over the weekend.

VSP Sgt. Frank Pyanoe says, "The main cause of the accidents, more than likely, on the interstates, were driver inattention or following too close. Many of our crashes on the interstate involve rear-end collisions."

In order to cut down on bad driving habits, State Police are trying to educate people on proper driving techniques. Pyanoe says although this past weekend was the busiest time of year, the number of fatalities on Virginia’s roadways has been increasing the past few years.

"For all times on the road but especially for holiday weekends, we urge drivers to buckle up, obey the speed limits, avoid distractions, share the road, and of course drive alcohol and drug free," says Pyanoe.

Despite it being a holiday, there was only one DUI arrest in Augusta County. Pyanoe says the number of accidents they had to cover really limited their resources to monitor other things.

He says, "We only had one DUI arrest and that may be due to the fact that we weren't able to go out there and pro-actively pursue those types of violations, because we were working so many crashes."

While there was only one fatality in Augusta County this weekend, Pyanoe says that was one too many. State Police urge people to pay more attention when they're on the roadways, especially as winter weather looms on the horizon.