The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office has announced that it will be participating in the statewide DUI crackdown over Labor Day weekend in an effort to deter impaired drivers.
Deputies will be joining their counterparts from the Peachtree City Police Department in focusing on DUI enforcement through the use of special patrols and checkpoints to identify drivers who are either impaired by drug use or having a blood alcohol content over the limit of .08.
The crackdown is part of the state’s Operation Zero Tolerance campaign.
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.
