Statewide crackdown targets impaired drivers during summer holiday travel periods

ATLANTA (June 19, 2007) - While for most Georgians, summertime fosters fond holiday memories, traffic enforcement officers and epidemiologists at the Governor's Office of Highway Safety know the travel season between July Fourth and Labor Day can be one of the most dangerous times of the year on our roads.

   Most motorists don’t realize the risk of a driver dying in a crash at .08 BAC is at least 11 times that of drivers without alcohol in their system. That’s why driving with a BAC of .08 or higher is now illegal in every state. Yet too many people still ignore the law. 

   “So we’re targeting travel periods when impaired driving and summer holiday traffic volumes are historically the highest on our state roadways,” said Director Bob Dallas of the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS). “We enforce Operation ZERO TOLERANCE here because drunk and drugged drivers cause about a third of Georgia’s total traffic fatalities every year. Cops simply call this lifesaving campaign OZT.”

   Research proves that high visibility enforcement of OZT, coupled with focused media attention, results in reduced impaired driving crashes and fatalities. That’s why GOHS is coordinating with more than 500 Georgia police departments, sheriff’s offices and State Patrol Posts to run concentrated patrols and set up sobriety checkpoints on our roadways and interstates this holiday travel season. Safe drivers go on their way, but motorists who drive drunk go to jail.

   “We’re even telling motorists when to watch out for the blue lights. Because it’s not about writing more tickets.. It’s about saving more lives,” said GOHS Director Dallas. Georgia’s July Fourth OZT holiday enforcement crackdown is scheduled to begin Friday, June 22nd, and runs through Sunday, July 8th, 2007. The Labor Day OZT enforcement campaign begins Friday, August 17th and runs through Monday, September 3rd, 2007. 

   And this Summer, while the OZT enforcement campaign is underway in Georgia, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will be mobilizing thousands of state and local law enforcement agencies on roadways across the Southeast and the nation under the new national campaign slogan: Over The Limit. Under Arrest.

   The summer holiday OZT campaign is part of the GOHS 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T. initiative that also runs through the end of the Labor Day travel period in September. Law enforcement officers will be patrolling roadways all summer during Summer H.E.A.T. to raise driver awareness about the deadly consequences of speed, drunk and drugged driving, and failure to use safety belts and child restraints.

   “Impaired driving is no accident – nor is it a victimless crime,“ said Director Dallas. “The message is simple. You drive impaired in Georgia, you WILL go to jail. It is Zero-Tolerance. Be responsible about your own limits. If you plan to drink, don’t drive. Designate a driver before you party. Hand your keys to a friend before you reach the illegal limit. Don’t let your summer end in an arrest, a tragic crash or death. Remember: Over the Limit. Under Arrest.” For more information about Operation Zero Tolerance and the 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T. campaign, visit the GOHS website at www.gahighwaysafety.org .