EVANSVILLE — With Labor Day weekend approaching, the Evansville Police Department put drivers on notice that officers will soon ramp up impaired driving enforcement.
From Aug. 16 through Aug. 30, officers will increase patrols and conduct sobriety checkpoints as part of the national “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign.
The initiative, led by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aims to reduce crashes and save lives during one of the busiest travel periods of the year, according to EPD Sgt. Nick Winsett.
In a news release announcing the effort, department officials did not disclose where the sobriety checkpoints would be located.
“Our top priority is keeping our roads and our community safe,” Winsett said. “This campaign is an awareness effort to get the message out that drunk driving is illegal and it kills.”
Alcohol-involved crashes by the numbers
The campaign comes as Indiana continues to grapple with hundreds of impaired driving fatalities annually. In 2024, nearly 14% of all traffic deaths in the state involved alcohol, while more than 35% involved drug impairment, according to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System.
In 2023, the most recent yearlong-stretch of FARS data reviewed by the Courier & Press, nearly half of all deadly crashes in Vanderburgh County – about 47% – involved alcohol. That was a higher proportion of alcohol-related traffic fatalities than the state average, which was 34% that year.
And when adjusted for population, the 11 alcohol-related traffic fatalities recorded in Vanderburgh County in 2023 were the third most of any county in Indiana per 100,000 residents — more than nearby Warrick, Gibson and Posey.
The EPD urges drivers to plan ahead before consuming alcohol. That includes designating a sober driver, taking public transport or using a rideshare service.
Houston Harwood can be contacted at houston.harwood@courierpress.com.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Sobriety checkpoints coming to Evansville ahead of Labor Day weekend
Reporting by Houston Harwood, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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