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The Hazelwood Police Department (HPD) will be out in force as part of the national St. Patrick’s Day Holiday “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” crackdown on drunk driving.  This public safety campaign, which will include high-visibility enforcement within the city limits of Hazelwood, is set for the weekend of March 14-17, 2014.

HPD officers will be aggressively patrolling their sectors during this nationwide crackdown and looking for intoxicated drivers.  Anyone caught driving drunk will be arrested.  To increase its effectiveness, the department will be conducting saturation patrols and, if weather permits, a DWI sobriety checkpoint at an undisclosed location within the city limits.

Having a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher is the threshold used to determine whether or not an individual is intoxicated.  Although it is illegal in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, to drive drunk, far too many people get behind the wheel after consuming too much alcohol.  The latest statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration underscore the seriousness of this national drunk driving epidemic.

“Every year, about one-third of all motor vehicle traffic deaths involve one or more impaired drivers or motorcycle operators,” said Chief of Police Gregg Hall, HazelwoodPolice Department.  “In 2013, 218 people were killed and 666 were seriously injured on Missouri’s roadways in accidents that involved at least one substance-impaired driver.” Chief Hall adds that more people tend to go overboard with their drinking during the St. Patrick’s Day holiday which only exasperates the problem.  During the St. Patrick’s Day holiday in 2013, 412 DWI arrests were made statewide.

For more information, visit the “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” Campaign  Headquarters at  www. TrafficSafetyMarketing.gov or www.saveMOlives.com”