This weekend four area law enforcement agencies will join forces to get drunken drivers off Lincoln streets with two sobriety checkpoints.
The county sheriff, State Patrol, city and university police departments will run one checkpoint tonight from about 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. and one Saturday around the same times.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Runza restaurants are sponsoring the effort to help people realize the serious consequences of driving drunk.
"If one person doesn't have to go through what my friends and family had to go through," said MADD representative Julie Hinds, who had previously been in a crash with a drunken driver.
Drivers can expect delays about the duration of a traffic light at the checkpoints, and police will provide positive reinforcement to those drivers who are obeying the laws.
In addition to information about the risks of drunken driving from MADD and police, law-abiding drivers will receive a coupon for a free meal from Runza.
"We feel it is worth every meal steal we give out to see people driving safer," Runza representative Becky Richter said.
National studies have shown that on an average weekend night one in 12 drivers on the road is legally drunk, said Fred Zwonechek of the state office of highway safety.
Zwonechek said his office provided some grant money, equipment and training to the enforcement project, which is just one part of the approach to curb drunken driving.
It has been several years since sobriety checkpoints have been used in Lincoln, primarily because they are so labor-intensive, Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady said. Many officers are needed to keep traffic moving efficiently.
Police plan to have 20 officers at the checkpoints along with mobile sobriety testing equipment from Cornhusker Place detoxification center, Lincoln Police Ofc. Greg Cody said.
The checkpoints will be operated systematically under guidelines outlined by the U.S. Supreme Court when the practice was challenged in the late 1980s. Police will be stopping cars at regular intervals, such as every third car.
Though multi-agency efforts such as this have been uncommon in the past, all those involved said they looked forward to future projects.
Drinking is a top concern for University Police, Assistant Chief Bill Manning said.
Police hope the checkpoints this weekend will help people realize the dangers and consequences of drunken driving.
"Our goal is to remind citizens to drink responsibly or not at all," said Col. Tom Nesbitt, state patrol superintendent.
Be the first to comment on this article!