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State Police to Crack Down on Impaired and Reckless
Driving this Memorial Day Weekend
Published: May 28, 2021 at 01:15 p.m.
By: Press Release from New York State Police
State Police to crack down on impaired and reckless
driving this Memorial Day weekend
28 May 2021
NEW YORK STATE POLICE
Major Darrin S. Pitkin
Troop D Commander
PRESS RELEASE
The New York
State Police will increase patrols to combat drunk, impaired, and reckless
driving throughout this Memorial Day weekend. The special enforcement
period starts on Friday, May 28, and runs through Tuesday, June 1. Memorial
Day is one of the busiest travel holidays of the year and police will be
out in force to remove impaired and reckless drivers from our highways.
Drivers can
expect to see sobriety checkpoints and increased patrols by State Police
and local law enforcement agencies during this holiday weekend. Troopers
will be using both marked State Police vehicles and Concealed Identity
Traffic Enforcement (CITE) vehicles as part of this crackdown to more
easily identify motorists who are violating the law. CITE vehicles allow
the Trooper to better observe driving violations. These vehicles
blend in with everyday traffic but are unmistakable as emergency vehicles
once the emergency lighting is activated.
According to the
Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research (ITSMR) at the University
of Albany, 251 people were killed and 5,151 were injured in drunk
driving-related crashes in 2019. Another 258 people were killed in
drug-related crashes.
This initiative
is partially funded by the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee (GTSC). The
GTSC and the New York State STOP-DWI Foundation remind motorists that
their “Have a Plan” mobile
app is available for Apple, Droid, and Windows smartphones. The
app enables New Yorkers to locate and call a taxi service and program a
designated driver list. It also provides information on DWI laws and
penalties, and a way to even report a suspected impaired driver.
On Memorial Day
weekend in 2020, Troopers arrested 203 people for driving while impaired,
issued 8,907 total tickets, and investigated 457 crashes, which resulted in
two fatalities.
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