It was a quiet weekend in Newton County as residents played safely for the most part.

The Georgia State Patrol reported six accidents with eight injuries and no fatalities.

 In the county, according to the Newton County Sheriff's Office traffic citations were significantly down for this year's Memorial Day weekend - 33 for 2008 compared to 58 in 2007 - and there was only one DUI arrest reported as opposed to five last year. Traffic accidents were about the same, 24 this year and 23 last year, but this time there were no fatalities and one fatality last year.

 "We're trying to reduce our accidents through traffic enforcement and that's been effective," said Sgt. Randy Downs, with the Newton County Sheriff's Office traffic unit.

Deputies haven't had to write many citations during the "Click it or Ticket" campaign with the Governor's Office of Highway Safety to enforce seatbelt use, said Downs.

Across the state, there were 2,480 traffic crashes, 721 injuries, and 12 fatalities compared to a record low of 10 fatalities last year during the 78-hour weekend, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

Some of the lower numbers have to do with less people on the road this year.

Downs said he didn't notice as much traffic as in the past years, especially on the interstate.

"I think a lot of it has to do with gas prices," he said. "Yesterday, for Memorial Day, there wasn't a lot of traffic out at all. There's more traffic out there today than this weekend."

Covington Police spokesperson Lt. Wendell Wagstaff echoed those sentiments, as he observed the weekend was a fairly quiet one. "Maybe the local people stayed at home and didn't frequent the bars as much," he said.

No traffic fatalities were reported in Covington and there was at least one DUI arrest for alcohol.