During the holiday season, local, state and federal law enforcement officers participated in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s campaign, Driver Sober or Get Pulled Over.
During the campaign, officers actively search for and arrest suspected drunk drivers through an increase in patrols, roadblocks and by using media to reach out to drivers, a press release from the Mississippi Office of Highway Safety states.
According to an Associated Press article, the Mississippi Highway Patrol reported five deaths over the Christmas weekend on state highways and interstates. Three other people died in crashes in D’Iberville and Saucier. Rain and thunderstorms may have contributed to these accidents during this period, which ended Dec. 27, Mississippi Highway Patrol Capt. Johnny Poulos said in the article.
However, the New Year began with no fatalities, the Mississippi Highway Patrol reported in the same AP article. The New Year’s patrols began Thursday and ended Friday at midnight, the article states.
According to the AP article, Poulos said that state troopers investigated 79 traffic accidents on state and federal highways and interstates. There were 19 injuries. Troopers issued 3,035 citations during the holiday period and made 84 DUI arrests, the article states.
“The troopers work as hard as we can to ensure the drunk drivers are off the road,” Cpl. Benjamin Siebert said. “Media outlets also got the word out to drivers and that was our goal.
However, just because the holidays are over, doesn’t mean we stop working. During the holidays, we have fewer DUI arrests because people know we are out there. The Highway Patrol is not going to stop looking for drunk drivers.”