Berkeley Police Step Up Drunk Driving Details Over The Holidays

If you’re planning on drinking over the holidays, the Berkeley Township police department has a message for you.

Drive sober or get pulled over.

Berkeley police officers will be searching for and arresting drunk drivers through Jan. 1, Police Chief Karin T. DiMichele said.

They have good reason to: in 2013, 10,076 people were killed in crashes involving a drunk driver, according to the National Highway Safety Administration.

In December 2013 alone there were 733 people killed in crashes involving at least one driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher. Twenty-three of those deaths occurred on Christmas Day.

Berkeley police have been increasing the number of patrols, setting up roadblocks, and using local media to reach out to all drivers. If you’re drinking and driving, police will stop you. If you’re caught drinking and driving you could face jail time, fines, loss of driver’s license, towing fees, and other DUI expenses, totaling $10,000 on average, the chief said.

“That’s not a small price, and that doesn’t even count the heftier price you could pay: the price of your life or someone else’s,” DiMichele said. “Drunk driving is a choice you make, and when you make that choice, people get hurt or die.”

The safest way to get home is to drive sober or catch a ride with a sober designated driver. If you plan on drinking at the holiday party or at a restaurant, hand the keys over to someone else – a sober friend, a taxi or public transportation. Or, try NHTSA’s SaferRide mobile app, which allows users to call a taxi or a friend by identifying their location so they can be picked up. The app is available at http://ow.ly/RWs3S for Android and http://ow.ly/RWs8h for iPhone users.

Berkeley Township received a $5,000 grant for the holiday enforcement detail, the chief said.

For more information, visit www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov.