Back road drunks – beware!

There’s a little secret among drivers who drink – if you’ve had a few too many, make sure you take as many back roads home as possible.  After all, everyone knows that the police only set up sobriety checkpoints on major roadways – they rarely if ever police rural roads and back streets.

Well, that little secret isn’t such a secret.  Law enforcement officials have long known that intoxicated drivers try to sneak around on rural roads to avoid being caught, but now they’re doing something about it.  The 2008 Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign just kicked off, and this year will focus on policing those very rural and back roads that are so appealing to drunk drivers.

Since over half of all traffic fatalities occur on rural roads, Governor Tim Kaine and law enforcement officials hope that this latest crackdown will save lives and keep intoxicated drivers off the road.  Virginians can expect to find at least one sobriety checkpoint or saturation patrol each week throughout each region for the remainder of 2008.

You can read more about Checkpoint Strikeforce and other Virginia DUI resources at the state’s “Smart, Safe, and Sober” website and in our law library article, “Virginia to Crack Down on Drunk Driving”.