The holidays are filled with parties and gatherings, many of which serve alcohol. While having a few drinks is part of many celebrations, getting behind the wheel of a car afterward is both dangerous and against the law. This time of year, law enforcement is out in force to ensure that streets are safe.
The Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over public safety campaign, a partnership among Arkansas State Police and local law enforcement agencies, kicked off Dec. 12 in an effort to raise public awareness about the dangers of drunken driving, particularly during the holidays. The campaign, encompassing both Christmas and New Year’s, ends Jan. 1.
“The holiday season should be a time of joy, not a time of tragedy and loss,” Col. Stan Witt, the state police director, says in a news release. “That’s why Arkansas motorists can expect to see an increase in saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints, anytime, anywhere. We understand that celebrations are a part of the season, but we ask that the public celebrate responsibly.”
Ann Whitehead, safety program manager at the state police’s Highway Safety Office, says traffic safety during the holidays is an ongoing problem. The campaign, part of a national initiative, puts more police officers on the streets and, in some cases, places sobriety checkpoints in communities.
“Each agency does what they can during this time,” she says, explaining that each community is tackling the issue of drunken driving in different ways.
In Benton, for example, there will be an increase in officers on the streets, but law enforcement will not hold sobriety checkpoints, says Lt. Kevin Russell, public information officer at the Benton Police Department. The additional officers will be paid overtime, thanks to a Selective Traffic Enforcement Program grant, provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is designed to increase seat belt and child-safety seat usage and the resources for apprehending intoxicated drivers.
“Especially as it gets closer to Christmas and New Year’s, [we’ll add] a couple [of extra officers] during each shift,” Russell says, though the exact number will vary by shift.
If drivers are pulled over, an officer can ask for a breath test if he or she has reasonable suspicion that the driver has been drinking, based on driving mannerisms or the smell of alcohol, for example. Russell encourages individuals not to refuse a breath test, because they will likely incur more charges, and says state law mandates the applicability of the test.
Russell says programs such as Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over, which focuses on a combination of enforcement and education, help reduce the number of drunken drivers on the road, especially once individuals realize the steep fines, loss of license or arrest that comes with a DWI charge. He says the number of DWI-related fatalities has “dropped dramatically” over the past 25 years.
In 2012, the most recent statistics available, 26 percent, or 143, of traffic-related fatalities in Arkansas involved alcohol-impaired drivers, and 15 of those occurred in December, Whitehead says. Drivers are considered alcohol impaired when their blood-alcohol concentration is .08. Nationally, 830 people were killed in automotive crashes involving a drunken driver in December 2012.
Whitehead and Russell suggest that individuals call 911 if they see drunken drivers on the road. Other ways of combating drunken driving during the holidays include planning ahead when alcohol consumption is expected, designating a sober driver, calling a taxi or sober friend and taking the bus.