Drunk driving in
the United States is nothing new. These accidents always result in deaths of
not only drunk drivers, but of innocent road users who are always in the
receiving end of such mishaps, from drivers, passengers, bicyclists to
pedestrians. Despite these, safety advocates and officials from law enforcement
agencies are not stopping on their tracks in cracking down drunk drivers.
In what seems to be
an annual tradition, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA), along with several entities in-charge of implementing traffic safety,
are once again joining hands in fighting drunk driving in U.S. roadways by
launching its “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign. The objective of the
campaign is crystal clear: a driver found drunk will be “stopped, arrested, and
prosecuted.”
Aside from the said
objective, this year’s campaign pays special attention on the victims of drunk
driving. Statistical data from the NHTSA showed that in nearly 10,000 drunk
driving-related crashes being recorded every year, more than a third of them
were not the drunk driver. In fact, in 2011, there were at least 3,371 of them.
In comparison, some 6,507 who died that year were the drunk drivers themselves.
Meanwhile, law
enforcement agencies have been playing a huge role in this nationwide campaign;
elements of more than 10,000 police departments and law enforcement agencies
all over the country have been out on the streets in full force since August 16
to implement the above mentioned objective.
