The Peachtree City Police Department will be participating in a statewide crackdown over the Labor Day holiday to target alcohol and drug-impaired drivers.

Police will be conducting various sobriety checkpoints over the Labor Day weekend as part of Georgia’s Operation Zero Tolerance.

Impaired motorists caught driving at or above the limit of .08 blood alcohol content will be arrested, officials said.

Some 30 percent of the fatal highway crashes in Georgia are caused by impaired drivers, according to Bob Dallas, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.

“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.“

In 2008, nearly 12,000 people died nationwide in highway crashes involving drivers with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher.

Statistically speaking, men are the most frequent DUI violators, with 21 to 34 year-old men being the most likely impaired offenders at 34 percent, followed by 25-to-34 year-old male drivers (31%), and male drivers 35-to-44 years old (25%).

Meanwhile, state officials urge sober motorists to buckle up as their best protection against a drunk driver.

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.