Police to strengthen DUI enforcement for holidays

Staff photo by April Bailey

Representatives with the South Carolina Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement officials met at the Aiken County Detention Center Thursday to issue a strict warning to motorists this holiday season: Drink and drive and you'll likely end up behind bars.

Today marks the first day of the state Department of Public Safety's Sober or Slammer campaign. It will continue through the first of the year, ending on Jan. 1. The program is a part of the state's efforts to lessen alcohol-related fatalities during the holidays.

"Our message is clear this afternoon: Drive sober, or the slammer awaits," said Ed Harmon, the assistant director of the state Department of Public Safety's office of highway safety.

More than 160 local agencies statewide are participating with the Sober or Slammer campaign. Law enforcement officials will be out on the highways in large numbers the next few weeks, enforcing the state's impaired driving laws and cracking down on drunken driving.

The campaign also aims to increase public awareness of the state's laws and the dangers of driving under the influence by airing commercials that feature law enforcement officials and actors reciting actual comments taken during a 2007 study which focused on the reasons people drink and drive. The state Department of Public Safety will also reissue a commercial from the "Highways or Dieways" campaign this holiday season.

"We use the slogan 'Highways or Dieways? The Choice is Yours' to emphasize to the motoring public that the choices you make behind the wheel affect other people, too," Mark Keel, director of the SCDPS, said in a release. "Driving while intoxicated can have very serious consequences - jail, injury or even death. During this DUI campaign, we will bring that message home to drivers who ignore the laws of the state."

There have been 843 reported traffic fatalities in the state this year, as of Dec. 7; 420 of those deaths have been DUI-related. The average number of alcohol-related deaths in the state is higher than the average murder rate. There is average of 315 murders in South Carolina each year and an average of 422 deaths caused by drinking and driving.

Aiken County Sheriff Michael Hunt urges drivers to think before getting behind the wheel after drinking. If you are going to drink, be responsible, he said.

"If you choose to drink and drive and you don't get in a wreck, you will be meeting one of these officers and spending the night in the jailhouse," he said.