Published: August 31, 2007 11:27 pm      

Police stress safety, extra patrols for Labor Day

As people head out this weekend in celebration of Labor Day, taking advantage of the final days of summer, police will also hit the roads in an effort to keep all who travel across them safe.

“There will be increased travel and we fully expect the roads to be busy, so we’ll be out there,” Beckley Police Cpl. Paul Blume, Southern Regional Highway Safety Program coordinator, said.

General road safety is important, but because of holiday celebrations, Blume said targeting drunk drivers is a key factor. In 2004, nearly 13,000 people were killed nationwide in highway accidents involving impaired drivers.

During Labor Day weekend in 2006, five people were killed in crashes in West Virginia.

“We’re going to be putting out extra patrols all over the region as part of a national crackdown against drunk driving,” Blume said. “Whatever people do — parties, cookouts, family gatherings — we don’t want them to drink, and if they do, we don’t want them behind the wheel.”

State Police will increase patrols during the holiday weekend as part of a national target period of enforcement running through Monday.

The increased patrols are part of Operation CARE (Combined Accident Reduction Effort). Troopers will also participate in the national Over the Limit, Under Arrest campaign, which is designed by the National Highway Safety Administration and “aimed at saving lives and preventing injuries in alcohol-related crashes and arresting DUI drivers.”

Funding from the Governor’s Highway Safety Program and the Commission on Drunk Driving Prevention, according to State Police Sgt. Jay Powers, has allowed for the agency to conduct checkpoints across the state.

Blume said Beckley Police will conduct a sobriety checkpoint from 8 p.m. today to 2 a.m. Sunday on Eisenhower Drive.

— E-mail: mjames@register-herald.com