With the Fourth of July holiday approaching, PennDOT, along with several local police departments and the PA DUI Association, have launched the "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign. The effort aims to keep families safe while traveling over the holiday.
Steve Cowan, a Safety Press Officer for PennDOT, said the crackdown is now underway and will continue through July 8.
Although PennDOT always encourages drivers to be safe on the roadways, this holiday is an especially important time to practice caution while driving. Cowan said this year more road-trippers may take advantage of their vacation time. "With the gasoline prices falling, we expect a lot more people to be out traveling, so we definitely want to focus on impaired driving and riding for this holiday."
Cowan added even though the Fourth of July is mid-week this summer, travel should not be affected. "With it being on a Wednesday, I do know a lot of people who are making this a long holiday, taking Monday and Tuesday off or Thursday and Friday off, so yes, I do expect there will be issues out there with impaired driving," Cowan said.
According to PennDOT, there were 897 crashes and 14 fatalities in Pennsylvania over the Fourth of July weekend last summer. 146 of those crashes and six of the deaths involved alcohol.
