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You Drink & Drive.
You Lose.
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| According to the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), last year, 15,935 traffic fatalities were attributed to impaired driving. With the goal of reducing the current fatality rate to no more than 11,000 per year by the year 2005, the NHTSA has initiated the
You Drink & Drive. You Lose. campaign. The Santa Monica Police Department, in joining with the NHTSA campaign efforts, hopes to educate the public about the dangers associated with impaired driving, and not only create a change in attitude, but a change in behavior. |
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| With more people expected to travel during the Fourth of July holiday, this year could be one of the deadliest periods ever for impaired driving fatalities.
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Impaired driving is no “accident.” It’s a serious crime that kills more than 16,000 people and injures nearly 305,000 others every year. Every 32 minutes, someone in America dies in an impaired driving crash. Every two minutes, someone is injured.
In your lifetime, you could be one out of three Americans who will be affected by a drunk or drugged driver.
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| To protect our community during this long holiday, the SMPD and other local criminal justice agencies join forces between July 3 and July 7 to protect citizens from impaired drivers as part of the
You Drink & Drive. You Lose. National Mobilization. SMPD officers will conduct sobriety checkpoints and increase patrol deployment to apprehend and keep impaired drivers, drunk and drugged, off our streets.
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Violators may lose their driver’s license, time from their job, and lose money in high fines and court costs, possibly face imprisonment and a criminal record, as well as higher insurance rates |
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| DUI checkpoints and increased traffic enforcement can help influence drivers to make the right choice, and remind us that impaired driving is a serious crime. At sobriety or DUI checkpoints, police officers evaluate drivers for signs of
alcohol or drug impairment at certain points on the roadway. Officers then take appropriate legal action based on their assessment of whether or not the driver is impaired. |
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SMPD is reminding our community:
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Don’t risk it –
If you plan to drive, don’t drink.
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Choose a sober designated driver.
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Take the
Big Blue Bus,
other mass transit or a cab.
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Spend the night where
the activity is being held.
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Report impaired drivers to the
SMPD
Communications Center
at 310-458-8491.
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| Impaired driving is not a victimless traffic offense.
Everyone is affected by the impaired driver’s irresponsible and malicious behavior, whether it be higher taxes or the emotional destruction a family experiences after losing a loved one.
SMPD urges you to celebrate responsibly and don’t take a chance – because chances are you will be caught.
The choice is yours: You Drink & Drive. You Lose. |
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 You Drink & Drive. You Lose. was developed as a national partnership aimed at intensifying the fight against impaired driving. NHTSA’s partners include the
Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association, the
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP),
National Association of Governors’ Highway Safety Representatives (NAGHSR), the
National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators, the
National District Attorney's Association, the
National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), the
National Sheriffs’ Association, and
Operation C.A.R.E. (Combined Accident Reduction Effort of state highway patrol departments).
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Specialized Unit: Traffic Section ◄
This page was last modified on
10/31/2007
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