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Alex Cabrero ReportingYou might notice a few extra police officers on the road tonight. A big DUI blitz started about 9:00.
We hear these messages all the time: Don't Drink and Drive. You Drink You Drive You Lose. But even with all those messages bombarding us almost every single day, there were still 14,000 DUI arrests in Utah last year and 44 people died in DUI related crashes.
Tonight, several police agencies in Salt Lake County and across Utah began a big, two week enforcement blitz. They always look for DUIs anyway, but now there's extra money for more patrols.
If you don't think you could be affected by alcohol, think again. Two young men died in this JEEP when a drunk driver hit them from behind, causing it to burst into flames.
Debra Hudson, Nephew Killed by Drunk Driver: "We learned really fast that life's very short. And it can happen to you. Never in a million years, when I got that phone call, would have though they would've told me that my nephew had been killed by a drunk driver. And when they told me that, I thought, it just didn't register at first because it can't happen to us, my nephew's a great kid."
Unfortunately, it's often innocent people who are affected.
A mobile unit allows police to interview people on the scene and determine how drunk they are, below or above the legal limit.
In the first hour or so tonight, there were three DUI arrests.
These patrol blitzes appear to be working. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says Utah led the nation in reducing drunk driving-related deaths from 2004. Our officers reduced the number by more than 50 percent.
