Press Releases

Indiana Law Enforcement Crackdown on Impaired Driving
Hoosier motorists warned to drive sober or get pulled over


Indianapolis, IN. – Drive sober or get pulled over. That’s the message to Hoosier drivers this week as Indiana law enforcement begins its annual statewide impaired driving
crackdown.


Beginning Friday, more than 260 state and local law enforcement agencies will take part in the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign by stepping up their efforts to detect and arrest impaired drivers.

“While alcohol-related collision and fatality rates in Indiana have declined over the past five
years, there continue to be far too many lives lost as a result of impaired drivers,” said Ryan
Klitzsch, ICJI Traffic Safety Division Director. “Impaired driving is a preventable crime,” he continued. “Before you have your first drink, plan ahead on how you will get safely home, you could save someone’s life.”

In 2010, a total of 135 people were killed in crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver. In fact, of the more than 4,900 alcohol-related collisions that occurred on Indiana roadways last year, nearly 30 percent resulted in death or injury.

High-visibility enforcement activities such as sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols will be conducted around the clock, however, patrols will be especially numerous during the weekend and nighttime hours. Research indicates that twice as many alcohol-impaired
collisions occur over the weekend. That incidence increases significantly during the nighttime hours.

“Officers will be dedicating hundreds of overtime hours towards keeping Indiana roadways safe from impaired drivers,” Klitzsch added. “The efforts of our law enforcement partners have been instrumental in educating Hoosiers about the dangers and consequences of impaired driving.”

Law enforcement agencies across the nation are also participating in the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over effort, which includes paid media and public awareness campaigns geared to raise awareness about the dangers of impaired driving. The Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign will continue through Labor Day weekend.

For more information, visit NHTSA’s High-Visibility Enforcement Campaign Headquarters at www.StopImpairedDriving.org. “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” is supported by federal funding allocated to the Traffic Safety division of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI) through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Drive Sober campaign is supported by a statewide media campaign.


Indiana Statistics

 General 

�    135 people were killed in crashes involving an impaired driver last year. 

�    In Indiana, there were 4,907 crashes and 130 fatal crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver in 2010.


�    Since 2006, around one in every five fatal crashes on Indiana roadways have involved an alcohol-impaired driver.


�    Of the nearly 300,000 drivers in crashes last year, 4,928 of them were legally impaired by alcohol. 

�    According to 2010 data, drivers with a history of convictions for alcohol-impaired driving were more likely to have been impaired in crashes than those without prior convictions.



Younger Drivers 

�    Last year, there were 133 drivers in Indiana fatal crashes with a blood alcohol content (BAC) result of .08 or higher – eight percent of which were under age 21.


�    Per 100,000 population, drivers age 21 to 24 are most likely to have been alcohol-impaired in Indiana fatal crashes.



Motorcycles 

�    Operators of motorcycles and mopeds continue to have higher incidences of alcohol involvement than drivers of other vehicle types.


�    There were nearly 300 motorcycle and moped operators involved in crashes last year who had been drinking. Twenty-seven (27) of these individuals were killed as a result.

National Statistics 

�    It is illegal to get behind the wheel with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher.   

�    Yet according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration  (NHTSA) , more than 10,000  people were killed in U.S. highway crashes involving a driver or motorcycle rider with an illegal BAC of .08 g/dL or higher in 2009 alone.  

�    Research also indicates that young adult drivers are most often involved in alcohol-related collisions.  In 2009, 8,976 people 21 to 34 years old were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those, 47 percent (4,206) were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. 

�    Alcohol impairment among drivers involved in fatal crashes was four times higher at night than during the day (37% versus 9%).  

�    Thirty-one percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes on weekends were alcohol-impaired, compared with 16 percent during the weekdays. 

�    In 2009, 32 percent of fatalities in motor vehicle traffic crashes involved drivers or motorcycle riders with BACs of .08 or above — an average of one fatality every 48 minutes.  

�    The percentage of drivers with BACs of .08 or above involved in fatal crashes in 2009 was highest for motorcycle riders (29 percent), followed by drivers of light trucks (23 percent) and passenger cars (23 percent).  

�    Forty-three percent of the 2,291 motorcycle riders who died in single-vehicle crashes had BACs of .08 or above. 

�    The age groups of 45 to 49 and 40 to 44 had the highest percentages of impaired (BAC of .08 or higher) motorcycle riders killed in fatal crashes — 41 percent and 38 percent, respectively. 

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