Milford Police to Crack Down on Drunk Drivers This Month

The Milford Police Department plans to join more than 148 other law-enforcement agencies throughout the Commonwealth to support an “intensive crackdown” on drunk/impaired drivers between Wednesday, Aug. 13 and Sept. 1 as part of the national “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” initiative, police said Monday.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, one alcohol-impaired driving fatality occurs every 51 minutes in the United States, and 123 people were killed in crashes that involved drivers with a blood-alcohol content level of .08 or higher in 2012, Milford police said.

“All too often, innocent, law-abiding people suffer tragic consequences and the loss of loved ones due to this careless disregard for human life,” Milford Police Lt. James Falvey said in a statement. “Because we’re committed to highway safety, we are intensifying enforcement during the crackdown. Twice as many alcohol-impaired crashes occur over the weekend and four times as many occur at night, so we will be especially vigilant during these high-risk times when impaired drivers are most likely to be on our roads.”

As part of the effort, Milford police plan to seek out impaired drivers and subsequently arrest such drivers regardless of time of day.

“Our message is simple and unwavering: if we find you driving impaired, we will arrest you,” Falvey said. “No exceptions. Even if you beat the odds and manage to walk away from an impaired-driving crash alive, the trauma and financial costs of a crash or an arrest for driving while impaired can still destroy your life.”

For more information, visit nhtsa.gov/drivesober.