law enforcement cracking down on drinking and driving this holiday

Beginning June 25 and going through July 8 the Calhoun Police Department (CPD) will join the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety’s “OPERATION ZERO-TOLERANCE: YOU DRINK and DRIVE, YOU LOSE,” sobriety checkpoint program – the statewide law enforcement crackdown on alcohol and drug-impaired drivers.

“As a community we should no longer tolerate anyone being injured and killed because people continue to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Every day you see and hear about such tragedies. It will take the collective outrage of all of us to reach drunk and drugged drivers. No one should look the other way when they see someone at risk. Such carelessness is always life threatening and never worth the risk,” read a statement issued by the CPD.

“The CPD will do our part. The public can support us be speaking up to friends, relatives and neighbors if they are driving under the influence. If reminding them they’re putting their lives and other people’s lives at deadly risk does not work, tell them that if an officer spots them during one of the systematic sobriety checkpoints, they will face being arrested and prosecution,” according to the CPD press release.

In Georgia, alcohol and drugs cause vehicle crashes that result in the deaths of nearly 500 people every year. In addition, the estimated monetary cost and quality of life loss averages $73,000 per injured survivor of an impaired driver-related crash and $2.9 million per fatality.

The Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, in partnership with more than 350 law enforcement agencies across the state, is implementing “OPERATION ZERO-TOLERANCE: YOU DRINK and DRIVE, YOU LOSE.”

The goal of this campaign is to significantly decrease incidents of deaths and injury on Georgia’s roadways involving drunk and drugged drivers.

“If the community works together to spread the word and change behaviors related to impaired driving, we can all help stem the rising tide of unnecessary crashes, injuries and deaths on Georgia’s roadways.,” in a statement from the CPD.