The highway patrol adds up the labor day weekend fatalities and gets ten—-almost half of last year’s total of eighteen. .

Patrol spokesman Tim Hull says the usual reasons are behind the deaths–driver inattention, speed, drinking, and carelessness.

Hull says ten deaths are still too many although he notes the total this year is down from 18 fatalities for Labor Day, 2006. Traffic fatality numbers for the year area running about 13 percent below last year’s totals.