WATCH: Wayland PD to Crack Down on Impaired Driving Through Labor Day

WAYLAND, MA—The Wayland Police Department will be ratcheting up enforcement on impaired drivers between Aug. 12 and Labor Day, said Chief Robert Irving, as the department has received a grant from Massachusetts Highway Safety Division of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) to increase patrols focusing on impaired drivers.

The crackdown is a part of the national "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“We lost 133 people in crashes involving a driver who was over the legal limit of intoxication in Massachusetts in 2014,” said Jeff Larason, director of the Highway Safety Division in a press release Friday. “The Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign is both an educational and an enforcement effort to promote sober driving. With so many safe alternatives to driving impaired – ride sharing, taxi service, mass transit, and designated drivers – there’s no excuse not to plan ahead how you will get home safely.”

According to NHTSA, on average, more than 10,000 people died each year between 2010 to 2014 in drunk-driving crashes across the country. During the 2014 Labor Day weekend, 40 percent of fatalities in traffic crashes involved drunk drivers.