Someone is killed or injured in an impaired driving crash every two hours in Wisconsin.
During the last holiday season, there were nearly 400 crashes that involved an impaired driver using alcohol or other drugs.
Starting today, the Manitowoc Police Department and other such agencies across the state are beginning their Drive Sober mobilization.
Seehafer News spoke with Lieutenant Adam Sohlden about the enforcement effort from today through New Year’s Day.
“We’ll have the same amount of officers as normal and this really doesn’t change anything for us. We’re always out there looking out for impaired drivers,” he explained. “It’s more or less about increased visibility to the public, kind of make them aware of impaired driving issues.”
Lieutenant Sohlden also told us, “We just like to get the word out there that we are doing this. We keep track of our statistics more closely during this time, as far as how many OWI arrests and traffic stops were made by the officers. And we get all that information back to the state so they can compile that.”
Lt. Sohlden tells us during last year’s Drive Sober Mobilization here in Manitowoc officers made 233 traffic stops and issued 68 citations, 6 OWI arrests, and 183 written warnings.
He said during that two-week period there was also a felony arrest, 1 person picked up for drug use, 3 misdemeanor arrests, and 2 arrests on outstanding warrants.
