After working the same morning shift at WSB for the last 15 years I've gotten into a rhythm for my drive into work. I realized early on, that the closer I lived to the station, the more sleep I could get. When you wake up at 3:19 every morning, every little bit of sleep counts. Usually if I hit every green light between my house and work, I can make the trip in about six minutes. If I get stuck at every red light, the trip can take up to 12 minutes. It's a fairly reliable commute time 50 weeks of the year.
There are two weeks a year however, that I need to plan on extra time to get to work, but I don't mind at all. That period began on Friday and runs through July 4th. It's the time of the year that the Governor's Office of Highway Safety launches their annual summer campaign of Operation Zero Tolerance.
When you drive to work as early as I do, you can expect to come upon the random DUI checkpoint. It goes with the territory. During Operation Zero Tolerance though, it can become an almost daily occurrence. Extra law enforcement officers out on patrol, providing greater DUI stop coverage. I remember a couple of years ago I got stopped every day during the operation at various spots along my commute. It added a few minutes to my commute, but again, I didn't mind. I'm all for a larger amount of checkpoints in the metro area. They are needed.
The fact that Operation Zero Tolerance takes place approaching the Fourth of July holiday is no coincidence. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 392 people were killed across the country during the July 4th holiday period in 2010. A full 39 percent of those deaths were in crashes where at least one of the drivers of the vehicles involved had a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit.
Georgia is certainly not immune to drunk driving related fatalities. In 2010 there were 298 deaths in the state caused by drunk drivers. That made up 25 percent of all fatal crashes in Georgia that year.
“The Fourth of July is one of the deadliest holidays due to an increase in impaired driving fatalities,” said Harris Blackwood, Director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. “Too many people die behind the wheel each year due to those who choose to drink and drive, so our officers will be out in full force showing zero tolerance for impaired drivers.”
The trends nationally show an increase of younger drunk drivers. In 2010, 46 percent of drunk driving deaths during the July 4th holiday period involved people between the ages of 18 and 34.
Operation Zero Tolerance hopes to help prevent those numbers from climbing. A small price for me to pay having to leave for work a little earlier in the morning.
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