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You Drink. You Drive. You Lose.

08/17/2015

You Drink. You Drive. You Lose.

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office wants motorists to be aware they will be joining nearly 150 other local and state law enforcement agencies between August 20th through Labor Day, September 7th, in focusing their efforts towards removing impaired drivers from our roadways.  The special enforcement campaign, known as You Drink. You Drive. You Lose, will allow overtime funding for officers thanks to a grant underwritten by the Kansas Department of Transportation.

On average, four people are injured every day in Kansas and one person is killed every three days, in impairment-related crashes.  According to KDOT, if you are involved in such a crash – in any capacity – you are about two times more likely to be injured and nearly six times more likely to be seriously injured or killed than if you are involved in a crash in which alcohol or other drugs are not determined to be a factor.  The ratio of death to injury in impairment-related crashes is almost seven times higher than the death to injury ratio for non-impairment related crashes.

According to Sheriff David Groves, “It’s important to the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office that our residents and visitors are able to drive on our roadways and get to their destinations safely.  As a result, we will be stepping up patrols and looking specifically for drunk drivers, in addition to those under the influence of drugs.  No matter how you plan to spend the Labor Day Holiday, if it involves alcohol – even a little bit - we strongly encourage you to make arrangements ahead of time to have a designated driver.”

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