Crime & Safety
Line Up a Designated Driver; More Police on the Road Through Labor Day and Beyond
"Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" effort aims to curb drunken driving and reduce highway fatalities.
Area police agencies will have additional presence on the roads this week and step up enforcement of drunken driving through Labor Day and beyond.
Extra patrol on the road begins Monday and continues through Sept. 8, the Des Moines Register reports. The "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign is part of a nationwide initiative that includes an advertising campaign.
Drunken drivers were responsible for 9,878 highway fatalities in the United States in 2011, though Iowa ranks second-to-last among U.S. states in the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities.
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The report cited Iowa State Patrol figures indicating that about a third of all traffic fatalities in the country involve at least one drunken driver. There were four traffic fatalities in Iowa over the Labor Day weekend last year, but none involved alcohol, the newspaper said.
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