Watertown Police Beefing Up Drunk Driving Patrols

WATERTOWN, MA – Watertown police will increase the number of patrols looking for impaired drivers on local roads, the department announced Wednesday. The Watertown Police Department was recently awarded a special grant from the Highway Safety Division of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

WPD is joining more than 200 police departments across the state as part of the "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign. This year's effort includes looking out for marijuana impairment, as well as the combined impairment caused by alcohol and marijuana.

"Drivers who have had too much to drink or ingested marijuana are a danger to everyone on the road," Watertown Police Chief Michael Lawn said in a press release. "This grant funding will allow us to add patrols specifically to remove impaired drivers and as a result reduce the needless deaths and injuries they cause."

In Massachusetts, marijuana or marijuana-type drugs were the most prevalent substances found in people killed in crashes from 2010-2014, according to the Watertown Police Department. During the same period, 46 percent of all alcohol-related driver fatalities were people ages 21-34.

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