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‘Drive Sober’ Enforcement Event begins Today

The Indiana State Police will be joining law enforcement agencies across the state for the annual ‘Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over’ program ahead of the July 4 Holiday

The Indiana State Police(ISP) Jasper district along with other participating police and sheriff’s offices will have extra hours for patrols to watch for signs of impairment, said Sgt. John Davis with the ISP Jasper post.

“We look for unsafe Lane moments, failure to maintain lanes, speeding, disregarding traffic control devices, like your stop signs, stop lights, erratic behavior, things of that nature.”

He said they’ll not only be looking for drunk drivers, but also impairment from legal and illegal drugs. “Those are just about exactly the same charge as a regular DUI with alcohol.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which is funding the enforcement event, About 37 people die in the U.S. in drunk driving crashes every day.

That’s nearly 14,000 annually. The event is all hours of the day and runs from June 30th to July 8th.

Davis expects this to be a busy travel weekend — with extra days for drinking.

“We have several law enforcement projects throughout the year, but this is a pretty big one because a lot of people drink on the Fourth of July weekend.”

The legal blood-alcohol- limit in Indiana is .08 and above, and registering for this will lead to immediate arrest, said Davis.

According to the ISP, of the 949 traffic fatalities in Indiana last year 12-percent were alcohol-related.

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