Police to crack down on drunk driving during holiday season

Staff Report

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2011 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 32,367 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in the United States in 2011, the lowest number of fatalities since 1949 when there were 30,246 fatalities.

However, in 2010, 10,228 people were killed in U.S. highway crashes involving a driver with an illegal blood-alcohol content of 0.08 or higher. Two-hundred ninety-eight people were killed in Illinois in 2010 in motor vehicle crashes involving a drunk driver.

Data show during last year’s Christmas holiday, 13 people lost their lives in motor vehicle crashes, and five of those fatalities involved a driver who had been drinking.

Data also show a very disproportionate number of fatal traffic crashes on Illinois roadways occur late at night, and a very high percentage of these fatalities involve alcohol and motorists who have failed to buckle up. Alcohol involvement and low belt use begin to become much more significant beginning at 9 p.m. and continues throughout the night until 6 a.m.

Rockford police is joining forces this holiday season with other area police departments to reduce these numbers. Extra enforcement details funded through a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation will be run through the Christmas holiday.

From the Dec. 19-25, 2012, issue