Following three consecutive Labor Day holiday periods of increasing highway deaths, Virginia officials on Thursday outlined plans to ensure safety on the state’s roadways this weekend through the year’s end.

According to Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles’ data, Labor Day traffic fatalities on Virginia’s roadways have steadily increased each year since 2012 and estimates project that close to a million Virginians will travel this Labor Day holiday weekend with the majority of those traveling doing so by driving.

 “Sadly, over the Labor Day holiday period, 40 percent of fatal crashes in the U.S. involve alcohol-impaired drivers,” said Brian J. Moran, Virginia’s Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security. “Worse, more than a fourth of these deadly crashes involve drivers with a blood alcohol concentration nearly twice the legal limit.”

Moran made his remarks at an outdoor news conference held on Sept. 1 at the Commonw...