If you’re getting ready to hit the road on Labor Day weekend, be prepared to drive through some sort of DWI checkpoint.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recently released some stunning new numbers on drunk driving deaths. Alcohol related deaths accounted for one out of three fatalities on the road in 2010.
Now, 10,000 law enforcement agencies across the country are ramping up drunk driving enforcement through the holiday weekend.
A new report shows drunk driving deaths dropped slightly from 2009-2010 by about 5 percent, but the drivers that are drinking are increasingly intoxicated.
“New agency statistics released today show that 70 percent of deaths in drunk driving crashes in 2010 involved drivers with a blood alcohol level that was nearly twice the legal limit,” NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said.
From the data drawn, the NHTSA have found these facts:
- 20 to 24-year-olds are most likely to be involved in drunk driving deaths.
- There was one drunk driving death ever 51 minutes during 2010.
- People caught for one DWI are four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash.
Over the next few weeks the “Drive Sober Or Get Pulled Over” campaign will take aim at drunk drivers, hoping to get them off the road for good.
“When you witness, day after day, the damage done to people’s lives, you quickly develop a zero tolerance for drunk driving,” said Police Chief Thomas Manger of Montgomery County, MD.
article courtesy of 19ActionNews.com
