DWI Taskforce Working Hard This December

Officers in the Brainerd Lakes area will be working extra patrols together statewide with other deputies, officers and troopers during the month of December for a crackdown on impaired drivers. According to Department of Public Safety records, even with a record low number of fatalities since 1944, out of the 421 deaths on our roadways in 2009, alcohol was still involved in at least 140 of those crashes. At least 2,592 people sustained injuries in alcohol-related crashes. “Motorists who are driving impaired are still a serious threat to everyone on the road,” said Brainerd Police Chief Corky McQuiston. “People need to learn to plan ahead so they won’t drink and drive, it’s that simple.”

Chief McQuiston also said, “All motorists need to be on the lookout for drivers who appear to be impaired, and report them.” Officers statewide are encouraging all drivers to take that personal responsibility for their own actions behind the wheel and make that decision not to drink and drive. In 2009 officers in Minnesota arrested an average of 90 persons a day for impaired driving, and at least 41 percent of those drivers had a previous DWI on their record. Also in 2009, eight percent of the drivers arrested for DWI were under age 21. One out of seven current Minnesota drivers has at least one DWI.

Law enforcement agencies in the Crow Wing County area working this project will be Minnesota State Patrol troopers, Crow Wing County Deputies, and officers from the police departments of Brainerd, Baxter, Nisswa, Deerwood, Emily, Crosby, Cuyuna, Crosslake and Breezy Point. Safe & Sober is coordinated by the Department of Public Safety Office of Traffic Safety and is a component of the state’s Toward Zero Death initiative (TZD).