Labor Day DUI Enforcement Under Way
STATEWIDE — Labor Day festivities will be plentiful this weekend as Coloradans enjoy the last days of summer. Encouraging Coloradans to celebrate responsibly, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), Colorado State Patrol (CSP) and statewide law agencies are continuing heightened DUI patrols through the travel-heavy holiday weekend. The Labor Day enforcement period began on Friday, Aug. 19, and runs through Tuesday, Sept. 6.
Officers from 108 Colorado law agencies are participating in the Labor Day DUI enforcement. During last year’s enforcement period, 87 law enforcement agencies participated and arrested 1,030 people for impaired driving.
To bring awareness to the fact that even small amounts of alcohol impair your driving ability, CDOT will continue to promote its “DUI Social Experiment” hidden camera video on social media throughout the holiday weekend. Since launching the video through Facebook on Aug. 22, it has reached over 260,000 people, generated nearly 150,000 video views and more than 600 shares, garnering coverage not only throughout Colorado, but also across the country. CDOT conducted the experiment under the guise of a brewery tour company. CDOT hired actors to escort unsuspecting tour participants to three breweries in Denver over the course of three hours. The tour’s driver pretended to consume alcohol at each stop along the tour. As the driver mingled with brewery tour goers, none of the participants seemed concerned that he was drinking and driving. At the experiment’s end, it was revealed that the driver was drinking non-alcoholic beer. The revelation of the experiment evoked emotional responses from the participants and offered powerful lessons — a few drinks can impair motor skills; and when you drink, it’s important to take responsibility for your actions — and the actions of your driver.
To view the video, visit afewbrewsdenver.com or go to bit.ly/CDOTDUI
“CDOT asks those who choose to drink this weekend to avoid driving and instead use alternate transportation,” said Darrell Lingk, Director of the Office of Transportation Safety at CDOT. “The resources to avoid impaired driving are abundant and easily accessible. We hope people take advantage of these resources and refrain from risking their lives — and the lives of others — by driving impaired.”
“While most Coloradans will enjoy their well-deserved day off, law enforcement from across the state will be working to remove impaired drivers from the roadway," said Col. Scott Hernandez, Chief of the Colorado State Patrol. “An impaired driver puts everyone on the road in danger. We hope people choose to either drive sober, or not drive at all.”
To access CDOT’s The Heat Is On arrest database visit bit.ly/HIOarrests. Arrest data can be sorted based on law enforcement agency, county and enforcement period.
The CDOT Highway Safety Office provides funding to Colorado law enforcement for impaired driving enforcement, education and awareness campaigns. The Heat Is On campaign runs throughout the year with 12 specific high visibility impaired driving enforcement periods centered on national holidays and large public events. Enforcement periods can include sobriety checkpoints, saturation patrols and additional law enforcement on duty dedicated to impaired driving enforcement. More details about the campaign, including impaired driving enforcement plans, arrest totals and safety tips can be found at HeatIsOnColorado.com.
