Area law enforcement agencies will increase efforts to get impaired drivers off the road beginning Friday and continuing through Sept. 1, according to a news release.
Drivers will be arrested if caught driving drunk. Driving impaired can mean time in jail, loss of driver's license, and court fines.
There were 10,322 people killed in drunken driving crashes in the United States in 2012, according to the release. Over the Labor Day weekend in 2012, 147 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes across the country. Twenty-five percent of fatal crashes were attributed to drivers with a blood alcohol concentration almost twice the legal limit.
Nationwide, someone is killed in a drunken driving crash every 51 minutes. Over the Labor Day weekend, those fatalities increase to one every 34 minutes.
NW News on 08/12/2014