From Staff Reports
Troopers from the Peru post of the Indiana State Police will conduct drunken driving checkpoints Friday.
Troopers also will patrol for impaired drivers throughout the Peru district, which covers Cass, Fulton, Miami, Howard, Tipton and Wabash counties.
State police say impaired driving remains one of America’s deadliest problems. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 37,261 people were killed nationally in motor vehicle crashes in 2008. That same year, 11,773 people were killed in crashes that involved a driver or motorcyclist with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher.
That means every 45 minutes, someone died in a crash involving an impaired driver. In Indiana there were a total of 205,005 crashes in 2007, and 9,942 of them were alcohol related.
“The purpose of enforcement checkpoints is to remove impaired drivers from Indiana roadways before they cause needless pain, suffering and death to innocent victims,” ISP Sgt. Jeremy Kelly said. “Checkpoints also educate the motoring public of the ongoing efforts by the Indiana State Police to reduce the number of impaired driving crashes and deter anyone from driving while intoxicated.”
