The LaPorte County DUI Task Force, consisting of officers from LaPorte, Michigan City and LaPorte County, will be cracking down on drunk drivers during this Labor Day period with added patrols and Aug. 29 sobriety checkpoints as part of the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign.
The Aug. 29 sobriety checkpoints’ locations are determined by analysis of crash data, impaired driving arrest data and officer safety.
According to police, in 2012 (the most recent year for which statistics are available) 10,322 people were killed nationwide in drunk-driving crashes, 38 percent of which occurred over Labor Day weekend.
On average, every 51 minutes, someone is killed in a drunk-driving crash. Over the Labor Day weekend, those fatalities increase to one every 34 minutes. Nighttime is especially dangerous; almost half of the Labor Day weekend fatalities at night involved a driver with a BAC of .08 or higher.
“Driving drunk is totally inexcusable,” said LaPorte Police Captain Tom Heath. “We’re hoping that LaPorte drivers get the message and take some simple steps to prevent a tragedy. There’s always another way home.”
Law enforcement is not messing around: if you’re caught driving drunk, you will be arrested. Aside from the obvious risks of killing yourself or someone else, a drunk-driving arrest is costly in other ways: possible time in jail and loss of your license, and an average cost of about $10,000.
