From now through Sept. 3, Jefferson City police will join other law enforcement agencies across Missouri in searching for drunk drivers to get them off the roads.
The annual nationwide “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign is supported by grant funding from the Missouri Department of Transportation, Division of Highway and Traffic Safety and the Missouri Safety Center, which pays for overtime allowing officers to be on patrol longer.
More than 200 law enforcement agencies across the state are participating in the campaign.
During the 2017 campaign, law enforcement across Missouri made 242 drunk driving arrests and 27 driving under the influence drug arrests and there were 23 minor in possession violations.
“Each day, lives are drastically changed or lost in preventable traffic crashes caused by impaired driving,” Jon Nelson, executive chair to the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety, said in a MoDOT news release. “In 2017, 196 people were killed and 605 seriously injured in Missouri crashes that involved at least one substance-impaired driver.”
MoDOT Direct Patrick McKenna noted during a Friday kick-off to the campaign there are many personal stories of people affected by drunk driving crashes.
“As a father of three, the statistics on drunk driving are alarming to me,” McKenna said. “Every parent’s worst fear is getting a call that your child was in an accident, and it’s even more painful and heartbreaking if the incident involved an impaired driver.”
From 2015-17 in Missouri, 38 fatal crashes and 136 serious injury crashes involved drivers younger than 21 and under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to statistics McKenna provided. Those crashes left 53 people killed and 184 seriously injured.
“I’m proud Missouri has a zero-tolerance law,” he said. “If you are under 21, your license will be suspended if you are caught with even a trace of alcohol in your system.”