The message is clear: if you drive impaired, you will be caught and arrested. This year, 952 Ohio law
enforcement agencies joined thousands of other law enforcement and highway safety agencies throughout
the nation to take part in the Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest Crackdown on impaired
driving. The enforcement blitz lasts through the Labor Day holiday weekend.
During the enforcement period, law enforcement partners have planned more than 5,700 enforcement hours,
approximately 40 checkpoints and more than 1,700 hours of saturation patrols around the state.
"We are serious about saving lives and so are our partners, from law enforcement to safety
advocates," said Ohio Depart-ment of Public Safety Director Henry Guzmán. "We’ve seen a
decline in alcohol-related fatalities on Ohio’s roads over the past three years and we want to make sure
that trend continues, so we’re working to ensure everyone knows that drunk driving is simply not worth
the risk."
In 2008, 449 people died in alcohol-related crashes on Ohio’s roads (down from 473 in 2007 and 495 in
2006) and more than 8,000 people were injured. Impaired driving also continues to be a problem
nationwide. Nationally, in 2007, nearly 13,000 people died in highway crashes involving a driver or
motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 or higher.
The picture for motorcycle riders is particularly bleak. Nationally, in fatal crashes in 2007, a higher
percentage of motorcycle riders (27 percent) had a BAC of 0.08 or higher than any other type of motor
vehicle driver. In Ohio, in 2008, motorcycles made up the second largest vehicle group (behind passenger
vehicles) in fatal crashes involving alcohol.
The national Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest. Crackdown is a program organized by the U.S.
Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Admini-stration that focuses on combining
high-visibility enforcement with heightened public awareness through advertising and publicity. It is
locally administered by the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Ohio Traffic Safety Office, which funds a
majority of the enforcement hours through federal funds from NHTSA.