Law enforcement in Georgia to focus on impaired drivers during holidays

ALBANY — While kids worry about Santa watching out for wrong moves this time of year, impaired drivers have bigger worries than coal in their stockings.

Starting Friday and continuing through Jan. 2, law enforcement officials will place additional emphasis on enforcing impaired driving laws, the director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said.

And while a child might plead with the kindly old saint for a chance to do better next year, those caught driving drunk will not get a pass, GOHS Director Harris Blackwood said.

“The holidays should be a time for celebrations and making memories, not a time of tragedy,” Blackwood said. “Not only do we want people to get a designated driver to begin with, but we want them to know that if they fail to do so, they will go to jail. No warnings, no excuses.”

Blackwood’s office said that a quarter of all traffic fatalities in Georgia involve drivers who are impaired by alcohol or drugs. There were 368 fatalities in 2016 involving alcohol and 358 the year before.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 37,461 people were killed in traffic crashes in 2016 in the United States, with 28 percent of those fatalities involving a driver with a blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit of .08 — the current limit in all 50 states.

Last year during the Christmas holiday weekend, which started at 6 p.m. Dec. 22 and ended at midnight Christmas night, 11 fatalities were recorded on Georgia highways and roads, including a pedestrian in Baker County.

“Unfortunately, alcohol at many holiday events contributes to the number of impaired drivers on our roads,” Blackwood said. “When you are planning what you are going to wear, what time you are going to arrive and what you are going to bring, also plan ahead for your sober ride home with a designated driver, ride service or a friend.”

When attending a function where alcohol is consumed, officials say partiers should:

— Plan for a sober driver to take you home;

— Take the responsibility seriously if you’re the designated sober driver;

— Remember that it is never OK to drink and drive, even if you’ve only had one alcoholic beverage;

— Use rideshare programs like Uber or Lyft if you’ve been drinking;

— Download GOHS’s “Drive Sober, Georgia” smartphone app for a list of sober ride programs and taxi services in your area or program taxi company phone numbers into your phone before you leave home;

— Be prepared to take keys away from someone who is impaired;

— If you see an impaired driver while on the road, call 911 or dial *GSP from your cellphone to be connected to the nearest Georgia State Patrol post.

“We want to keep Georgia’s roads safe this holiday season and help people understand that the only time they should be behind the wheel is when they are sober,” Blackwood said. “Alcohol affects people differently, and you do not have to be feeling or acting drunk to be too impaired to drive.”

For more information on the impaired driving program at the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, go to www.gahighwaysafety.org or visit social media at www.facebook.com/gahighwaysafety and @gohsgeorgia on Twitter.