Department of Transportation to Motorists: "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over"

Published on September 01, 2017 03:23 PM in Safe Driving

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urges motorists to drive sober or get pulled over this Labor Day weekend.

The NHTSA’s annual Labor Day campaign runs through September 4 and couples with advertisements and the full support of law enforcement agencies.

"Drunk driving is a dangerous epidemic on U.S. roads and is 100 percent preventable," the NHTSA said in a press release. "There are no excuses. The most effective way to stop drunk driving is to prevent it from happening in the first place."

Intoxicated driving is against the law in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. It is illegal to drive a vehicle if your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher.

More than 450 people died in drunk driving crashes over the Labor Day holiday period in 2015. Thirty-three percent of those deaths involved drunk drivers. Nighttime is the most dangerous time to be out on the roads, with 78 percent of the 153 drunk driving fatalities occurring between 6 p.m. and 5:59 a.m.

NHTSA urges motorists to take the following precautions to avoid drunken driving:

Plan ahead and designate a sober driver
Use public transportation, taxi, ride share service, or your community’s sober ride program to get home safely.
Download NHTSA’s SaferRide mobile app available on Google Play for Android devices and Apple’s iTunes Store for IOS devices. SaferRide allows users to call a taxi or a predetermined friend, and identifies the user’s location so he or she can be picked up.
If you see a drunk driver on the road, contact local law enforcement.