Statewide crackdown to target drunk drivers

• What time of day are you most likely to encounter a drunk driver?  The Crash Clock shows the answer is, AT NIGHT.   Alcohol impairment among drivers involved in fatal crashes is four times higher at night (36%) than during the day (9%).

• What days of the week are you most likely to encounter a drunk driver?  The Crash Clock shows the answer is, ON WEEKENDS.  Thirty-two percent (32%) of drivers involved in fatal crashes on weekends are alcohol-impaired, compared with 15 percent (15%) during the week.
• What is the most common denominator for drunk drivers?   National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data shows 21-to-34 YEAR-OLD MALES are the most likely impaired driving offenders (34%), followed by 25-to-34 year-old male drivers (31%), and male drivers 35-to-44 years old (25%). Get the picture, Men?

• Are repeat DUI offenders more likely to be killed in a DUI crash?  NHTSA crash data shows drivers who were involved in fatal crashes with a BAC of .08 or higher, are 8 times more likely to have a prior conviction for driving impaired, than a driver involved in a fatal crash who had consumed no alcohol. Will you be riding with a repeat offender at the wheel this Labor Day?

 “This national DUI data is really a warning for cautious drivers everywhere to make sure all passengers are  buckled up every trip, every time,” says GOHS Director Bob Dallas. “Every safe driver’s personal highway survival guide should tell them safetybelts are still your best protection against an unexpected crash with a drunk driver at anytime and anywhere, day or night.”

 Georgia’s crash data calendar shows the summer travel period here is one of the most dangerous times on our highways. Georgia DOT reported 2,401 traffic crashes last Labor Day, just during the 78-hour travel period around the holiday. Nineteen people died and another 1,069 Georgians were injured. In 2008, more than a thousand people were injured while traveling on Georgia highways during the same Labor Day holiday period.

 To Georgia’s highway safety professionals, the causes behind those Labor Day holiday fatalities sound all too familiar: Alcohol and drugs are usually identified as major contributing factors and about half the crash victims are unbuckled when they die.

 “The sad fact is three-out-of-ten of our fatal highway crashes in Georgia each year are caused by impaired drivers. And every one of those tragic alcohol-related deaths is completely preventable!” says GOHS Director Bob Dallas.  “Impaired driving is no ‘accident’: It’s one of America’s most often-committed and deadliest crimes. Imagine the public outrage if twenty-nine jumbo jets -- each carrying about 400 people --crashed every year in America, killing all on board. That’s the equivalent of the death toll our country suffers due to drunk driving each year.“
 How can we stop these needless fatal crashes? The end-of-summer mobilization is called Operation Zero Tolerance (OZT) because even first-time violators go to jail. In Georgia OZT means you never receive just a warning or citation. Impaired motorists caught driving at or over the 0.08 (BAC) limit are arrested. In Georgia, it’s “Over The Limit. Under Arrest.” 

 Georgia’s statewide Operation Zero Tolerance holiday enforcement crackdown began Friday, August 20th  and runs through Monday, September 6th, 2010.  “You see, we even warn motorists what days to watch out for blue lights,” says GOHS Director Dallas. “Because in Georgia, it’s not about writing more tickets. It’s about saving more lives.  And we hope every driver will pay attention to our life-saving enforcement warning.”

Remember to designate a sober driver in advance – Before the Labor Day festivities begin. Friends should never let friends drive drunk or distracted.  So Buckle-up, Hang-Up, Slow Down And Drive Sober.  Labor Day weekend is every Georgian’s last celebration of summer. Don’t let it be your very last.