The Charles County Sheriff’s Office will conduct multiple sobriety checkpoints between 8 p.m. Aug. 23 and 12 a.m. Aug 24. The Sheriff’s Office is not disclosing the location of the checkpoints but signs on the roadway will advise motorists as they approach it. Officers will check all vehicles that pass through the checkpoint and drivers who are found to be intoxicated will be arrested. Delays for motorists are expected to be minimal.
The checkpoints are being conducted in conjunction with the “Over the Limit, Under Arrest” crackdown on drunk drivers between Aug. 17 and Labor Day. The Charles, Calvert and St. Mary’s County sheriff’s offices and the Maryland State Police are participating in the nationwide initiative.
Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. In 2005, nearly 13,000 people died in highway crashes involving a driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher. Forty-one percent of the 1,878 motorcycle operators who died in single-vehicle crashes in 2005 had BAC levels of .08 or higher.
The national “Drunk Driving, Over the Limit, Under Arrest” impaired driving crackdown is a prevention program organized by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which focuses on combining high-visibility enforcement with heightened public awareness through advertising and publicity.
This year’s effort is supported by $11 million in paid-national advertising to help put everyone on notice if they are caught driving impaired, they will be arrested.
For more information, visit www.stopimpaireddriving.com.
