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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Highway Patrol wants to make sure your holiday season doesn't turn into an ugly Christmas sweater.
On Tuesday, the agency announced its "Drive sober or get pulled over" campaign. The annual push is an effort to prevent drinking and driving during the holidays. The department is using ugly sweaters as a way to remind drivers not to have an ugly holiday by becoming involved in a DUI crash or being pulled over for DUI, said UHP Lt. Nick Street.
Starting Wednesday and running through Jan. 1, law enforcers from 21 agencies will be conducting 154 extra DUI shifts statewide, Street said. The Utah Highway Patrol alone will have 125 extra shifts for troopers to patrol the freeways looking for all violations, including impaired driving.
According to a recent study, the UHP stated that the No. 1 reason for people to drive while intoxicated during the holidays is being overconfident about their level of sobriety.
Col. Mike Rapich said all DUI fatalities are preventable.
"These aren't errors. These aren't mistakes. These aren't accidents. These are choices people make," he said. "It's 100% preventable."
A study by Mothers Against Drunk Driving showed that by the time a person is arrested for investigation of DUI, they have already driven while impaired 80 times.
While the UHP hopes drinking and driving is slowed this year due to holiday office parties being canceled, large family Christmas gatherings being discouraged and bars being forced to stop serving alcohol by 10 p.m., Rapich said pandemic-related restrictions haven't done much in 2020 to curb drinking and driving.
These aren't errors. These aren't mistakes. These aren't accidents. These are choices people make. It's 100% preventable.
–Col. Mike Rapich
Despite fewer people on the road this year due to people staying at home because of COVID-19, Rapich said the number of DUI arrests and fatal DUI crashes are up this year.
There were 27 DUI-related fatal crashes in 2019, according to the highway patrol. As of Monday, there had already been 28 in Utah in 2020. Also as of Monday, troopers had made more than 10,500 DUI arrests statewide during the year, averaging 29 arrests per day.
And December "quite often is a busy month with alcohol-related crashes," Rapich said.
That's why even if people are just getting together with a small group of friends or family members during the holidays, Rapich hopes drivers will make the right choices and end the year on a positive note.
"I would like to change the trend we've seen already this year. I would like December to be better," Rapich said.
