BEDFORD — New Hampshire safety officials are cautioning drivers as they travel over the Labor Day weekend, citing an alarming recent increase in motor vehicle fatalities.

As of Aug. 30, 71 people have been killed in crashes on New Hampshire roads this year, up 19 percent from last year.

“August 2012 has been really a troubling month for all of us as we've had a high spike of fatalities,” said Chris Clement, comissioner of the Department of Transportation, on Friday at a press conference at the state police's Troop B barracks in Bedford.

According to state police, 20 people were killed in 18 fatal accidents in New Hampshire in August.

“We need your help in the public; We need you to be a partner with us in order to achieve our goal towards zero deaths,” Clement said.

New Hampshire State Police Col. Robert Quinn said law enforcement across the state will step up patrols this weekend.

“Over these busy holiday weekends, we're going to have increased aircraft patrols, increased laser patrols, increased DWI patrols, sobriety checkpoints,” he said.

Quinn said state police formed a partnership with local law enforcement. Chiefs of police from Tilton and Goffstown were present at the event.

“We're here because we all have a shared goal,” Quinn said. The local chiefs “don't want their officers to have to go knock on a door and deliver a death notification.”

“We all have families, many of us are parents, we have children, and I think none of you want to experience this type of tragedy,” he said.

Quinn said police are studying the data to understand where, when and how crashes are occurring. The information is analyzed by State Police Sgt. Matt Shapiro, who works with fellow law enforcement agencies to look at what could have been done to prevent a crash.

Of the 71 traffic deaths, 20 have been on motorcycles, including two passengers. Last year, 12 people died on motorcycles.

Six pedestrians have also been killed.

Though fatalities are up, the total number of crashes, 14,358, has decreased since last year's 16,587, representing an 13 percent decrease.

Peter M. Thomson, coordinator of the New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency, said the recent spike in fatal crashes comes at a time that, over the past 18 months, the state has had its lowest rate of traffic-related mortality in 60 years.

“We have spiked upwards in three weeks to 71 fatalities, 18 fatalities in three weeks time,” Thompson said. “This is intolerable.”

The highway agency has provided about $2.3 million for traffic-related law enforcement, including $544,000 for local and state police speeding enforcement, $365,000 for the year-old Operation Safe Commute, $224,000 for radars, $61,000 for State Police DWI patrols, $157,000 for motorcycle safety, $132,000 for child passenger enforcement, in addition to in-cruiser cameras, sobriety checkpoints and police overtime.

Thompson instructed drivers on how to stay safe.

“Wear your seatbelt, never get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol, be aware of distracted drivers, keep your speed according to the speed limit signs, move over when emergency lights are flashing,” he said.

State Police Capt. John LeLacheur said the goal is zero fatalities.

“We might get 10 more people to wear seatbelts that are involved in accidents, and they're not critically injured — we've done our job,” he said.

LeLacheur said part of the general decrease in motor vehicle fatalities is attributed to automotive safety features such as airbags, together with advances in medicine.

“One thing we're seeing is people are still being severely injured, but they're being flown to level one trauma centers, and they're surviving,” he said. “But they have permanent lifelong disabilities.”

Prior to the event, LeLacheur related two fatal crashes that occurred in August to highlight the importance of buckling up.

In one case, the driver was wearing a seatbelt and survived while the passenger was thrown from the car and killed. In the other case, the opposite happened.

srios@newstote.com