Extra DWI Patrols Out On Labor Day Wkd. In Aberdeen

ABERDEEN, NJ — As they do every Labor Day weekend, the Bayshore Task Force is partnering with the U.S.
Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to get drunk drivers off the roads.

The Bayshore Task Force, comprised of police departments in Aberdeen, Atlantic Highlands, Hazlet, Holmdel, Highlands, Keyport, Keansburg, Matawan, Middletown and Union Beach, will be deploying officers as part of DWI Saturation Patrols during the high-visibility national enforcement campaign, Drive Sober or
Get Pulled Over, which runs from August 17 through September 3, 2018.

During this period, local law enforcement will show zero tolerance for drunk driving. Nine of the departments were awarded grants from the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety of $11,000 each to conduct saturation patrols throughout the year.

Over the 2016 Labor Day holiday period (6 p.m. September 2 – 5:59 a.m. September 6), there were 433 crash fatalities nationwide. Of the fatal crashes, more than one-third (36%) involved drivers who were drunk (.08+ blood alcohol concentration [BAC]), and one-fourth (25%) involved drivers who were driving with a BAC almost twice the legal limit (.15+ BAC).

Age is a particularly risky factor: Among the drivers between the ages of 18 and 34 who were killed in crashes over the Labor Day holiday period in 2016, 47 percent of those fatalities involved drunk drivers with BACs of .08 or higher.

“We need our community to understand: It’s up to them to make the smart decision to drive sober — Labor Day, and every day,” said Aberdeen Chief John Powers, president of the Bayshore Task Force. “Drunk driving is a huge problem in our country, and the numbers are rising, little by little. This is not about a ticketing campaign. This is about a campaign to get the message out that drunk driving is illegal and it takes lives."

There is a small, silver lining: During the 2016 Labor Day holiday, 36 percent of fatalities in traffic crashes involved a drunk driver, which was one of the lowest percentages over the five-year period from 2012 to 2016.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” cautions Keyport Chief Mark Hafner. “The trend for the Labor Day holiday is in a positive direction, but our goal is to have zero fatalities, always."