By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Safe Communities of Wood County brought law enforcement officers from around the county together on Friday to announce the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over mobilization.
The rally was held in the gazebo on Wooster Green in Bowling Green.
Sandy Wiechman, Safe Communities coordinator, said the mobilization is timed for Labor Day.
“As summer winds down and the holiday approaches, we must intensify efforts to protect the community by letting drivers know drunk driving is a deadly crime that won’t be tolerated.”
This year, she noted, activity on the roads is less than usual for this time of year. The National Tractor Pull was canceled. Students have started to move in at Bowling Green State University, but this year because of the pandemic, fewer students will be in the city. Many are still returning to campus.
“We always face the alcohol issue with those returning students,” Wiechman said. Safe Communities encourages them if they are going to drink, to do so responsibly, and find a safe way home.
Labor Day is a hot spot for drunk driving. “Labor Day proves to be an especially dangerous time on the roads, as people are enjoying those last summer parties, and, sadly, making the deadly decision to drive after drinking,” she said.
In 2018, 38 percent of traffic fatalities over the five-day period involved alcohol-impaired crashes.
Annually more than 10,000 die in drunk-driving crashes. In 2018, that was 10,511, a third of all traffic fatalities.
In Wood County 2019, 23 percent of all fatal crashes had alcohol as a contributing factor, and 12 percent of all serious involved alcohol.
Drug impaired driving is also a problem, Wiechman said. In 2019 in the county, 31 percent of traffic fatalities had drugs as a contributing factor.
Highway Patrol Sgt. Ryan Purpura said that last year Ohio had more than 13,000 OVI crashes that caused 600 deaths and 8,000 injuries.
Bowling Green Police Chief Tony Hetrick said that on average his department has one drunk driving arrest every other day. Impaired driving has been a factor in “the vast majority” of traffic fatalities in the city. “It’s the number one public safety concern in the City of Bowing Green.”
Wiechman said: “We need to do whatever we can to lower those alarming numbers.”
