This Labor Day, and Every Day: Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over

Each year, Americans mark the end of summer with the Labor Day holiday weekend, a time to celebrate the hard work and many accomplishments of our country. Friends and families eagerly await pool parties, backyard barbecues, and other occasions to enjoy the last days of summer sunshine. Sadly, the Labor Day holiday has also become one of the deadliest, with drunk drivers endangering themselves and others on their way home from these holiday festivities. This year, the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office and SAFE Coalition are partnering with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to get drunk drivers off the roads and help save lives. The high-visibility national enforcement campaign, Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over, runs from August 17 through September 3, 2018. During this period, local law enforcement will show zero tolerance for drunk driving. Increased State and national messages about the dangers of driving impaired, coupled with enforcement and increased officers on the road, aim to drastically reduce drunk driving on our nation’s roadways.

Sadly, the statistics prove that we have a lot of work to do to put an end to drunk driving. According to NHTSA, 10,497 people were killed in drunk-driving crashes in 2016. On average, 10,000 people were killed each year from 2012 to 2016—one person killed every 50 minutes in 2016. That’s the equivalent of 20 jumbo jets crashing each year, with no survivors. This is why the Sheriff’s Office and SAFE Coalition are working with NHTSA to remind drivers that drunk driving is not only illegal, it is a matter of life and death. As you head out to Labor Day festivities, remember: Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.

Over the 2016 Labor Day holiday period (6 p.m. September 2 – 5:59 a.m. September 6), there were 433 crash fatalities nationwide. Of the fatal crashes, more than one-third (36%) involved drivers who were drunk (.08+ blood alcohol concentration [BAC]), and one-fourth (25%) involved drivers who were driving with a BAC almost twice the legal limit (.15+ BAC). Age is a particularly risky factor: Among the drivers between the ages of 18 and 34 who were killed in crashes over the Labor Day holiday period in 2016, 47 percent of those fatalities involved drunk drivers with BACs of .08 or higher.

We need our community to understand: It’s up to them to make the smart decision to drive sober—Labor Day, and every day. Drunk driving is a huge problem in our country, and the numbers are rising, little by little. This isn’t about a ticketing campaign. This is about a campaign to get the message out that drunk driving is illegal and it takes lives. Help us put an end to this senseless behavior. 

There is a small, silver lining: During the 2016 Labor Day holiday, 36 percent of fatalities in traffic crashes involved a drunk driver, which was one of the lowest percentages over the five-year period from 2012 to 2016. We still have a lot of work to do. The trend for the Labor Day holiday is in a positive direction, but our goal is to have zero fatalities, always.

The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office, SAFE Coalition and NHTSA are reminding citizens of the resources available to get them home safely. Drunk driving is not an acceptable behavior. It is essential to plan a sober ride home before you ever leave for the party. That’s why, during the Labor Day holiday, we will make zero exceptions for drunk driving. There are just no excuses. 

The Sheriff’s Office and SAFE Coalition recommend these safe alternatives to drinking and driving:

·         Remember that it is never okay to drink and drive. Even if you’ve had only one alcoholic beverage, designate a sober driver or plan for someone to get you home safely.

·         Download NHTSA’s SaferRide mobile app, available on Google Play for Android devices: (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nhtsa.SaferRide&hl=en), and Apple’s iTunes Store for iOS devices: (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/saferride/id950774008?mt=8). SaferRide allows users to call a predetermined friend, and identifies the user’s location so they can be picked up.

·         If you see a drunk driver on the road, contact the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office (911).

·         Have a friend who is about to drink and drive? Take the keys away and make arrangements to get your friend home safely.

For more information about the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign, visit www.TrafficSafetyMarketing.gov.