Drive Drunk, Be Arrested Campaign to Start Soon

The Labor Day weekend brings with it a nationwide campaign under the name of "Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest." As you might have guessed, this campaign involves numerous law enforcement agencies that will be conducting sobriety checkpoints through the weekend of September 7-8.

The campaign aims to save more lives, as driving fatalities and injuries increase. National TV and radio advertising will warn motorists that if they drive drunk, they will be arrested. However, there is no intention just to arrest drivers, but to prevent drunk driving tragedies.

"The drop in drunk driving fatalities is great news. But we must eliminate drunk driving altogether," says MADD National President Laura Dean-Mooney in a statement for the press. "To eliminate drunk driving through increased enforcement and ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers, we need supporters to contact legislators in support of interlocks that stop drunk drivers from continuing to violate the law," she added.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), a non-profit organization that seeks to stop drunk driving, thinks that deterring drunk drivers is a key element of the campaign. New Mexico, the first state to mandate interlocks for all drunk driving convictions, has reduced drunk driving fatalities by 35 percent since its 2005 law became effective. Eleven states now mandate interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers and eight other.

Laura Dean-Mooney knows for a fact that every person killed in a drunk driving crash represents someone's loved one, and that is why MADD strongly supports the campaign. Her husband, Mike Dean, was killed on a Texas highway 18 years ago by a drunk whose 0.34 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeded the illegal drunk driving level four times.