Labor Day weekend is coming up. For many Americans, that means an extra day off, backyard and beach barbecues, visiting friends and family, and the unofficial end of the summer season. Unfortunately, it also means a sharp increase in drunk-driving related fatalities. Now, through Labor Day weekend (September 1, 2014), the Glendale Police Department will be aggressively targeting drunk and drugged drivers as part of a nationwide effort to end impaired driving and save lives. The Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign will increase public awareness with high-visibility enforcement, resulting in fewer drunk drivers on Glendale streets.

The Glendale Police Department will be looking for impaired drivers throughout the city with plans in place for a DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint on Friday, August 29, 2014, at an undisclosed location within the city limits between the hours of 6:00 pm and 2:00 a.m.

In California, this deadly crime led to 802 deaths because someone failed to designate a sober driver. Nationally, the latest data shows nearly 10,000 people were killed by an impaired driver. “Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed 1 life and resulted in 62 injury crashes, harming 86 of our friends and neighbors,” said Sgt. Tweedy.  Also, over 1,870 DUI arrests have been made in Glendale over the past three years.

Over the 2012 Labor Day weekend, 147 people lost their lives to a drunk driver, more than a third (38 percent) of all traffic fatalities that weekend. Out of all the crash fatalities that weekend, one in four were attributed to drivers with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level of .15 percent or higher – almost twice the legal limit in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Every 51 minutes, someone is killed in a drunk-driving crash. Over the Labor Day weekend, those fatalities increase to one every 34 minutes. Nighttime is especially dangerous; almost half (46 percent) of the fatalities in nighttime crashes over the Labor Day weekend involved a driver with a BAC of .08 or higher, compared to 25 percent in daytime fatal crashes.

This Labor Day weekend don’t let the festivities turn into fatalities. Remember, aside from the obvious risks of killing yourself or someone else, driving impaired can also lead to serious punitive consequences. A DUI arrest can mean time in jail, loss of your license, and steep financial expenses; the average DUI can cost up to $10,000.00.

Funding for this special operation is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Report Drunk Drivers! Call 9-1-1.