Sheriff’s office joins national crackdown

Jefferson County

From mid-August through Labor Day, the Sheriff’s Office will be out in force as part of the annual nationwide “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” crackdown on drunk driving. The crackdown, which will include high-visibility enforcement throughout Jefferson County, will run from Aug. 16 through Sept. 2.

The effective nationwide drunk driving crackdown will include high-visibility enforcement, high-profile events, and will be supported by national paid advertising, creating a comprehensive campaign to curb drunk driving in August and through the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Sheriff Glenn Boyer advises that his deputies will be aggressively looking for drunk drivers during the crackdown and will arrest anyone caught driving drunk.

Although it is illegal in all 50 States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to drive drunk (having a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher), far too many people across the nation get behind the wheel after consuming too much alcohol. The latest statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration underscore the serious nature of the nation’s continuing drunk driving epidemic.

“Every year, about one third of all motor vehicle traffic deaths involve one or more impaired drivers or motorcycle operators,” said Boyer. “In 2012, 230 people died in Missouri crashes involving impaired drivers. That works out to approximately one impaired driving fatality every 1.5 days.”

The sheriff added that holidays such as the Labor Day holiday are particularly dangerous.

During the Labor Day weekend in 2012, a total of three people were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes involving impaired drivers or motorcycle riders. Of those fatalities, one occurred at noon and the other two around 10 p.m.