Last Updated on December 11, 2013 by

North Carolina’s roads will be safe this holiday season. That is the message by state law enforcement officers in conjunction with the Governors Highway Safety department.

For the past several years, North Carolina’s law enforcement officers have joined forces to keep roads safe during the Christmas and New Year holiday seasons. This year’s Booze It & Lose It Campaign is scheduled to run from December 13, 2013 through January 5, 2014. In years past the statewide campaign began the first week in December and ended just after the New Year on Jan 2. However, this year’s campaign will begin a week later and run all the way through the first week of January.

The state’s Booze It & Lose It campaigns runs all year long with increased officers assigned during major holidays such as St. Patrick’s Day, Fourth of July, Halloween, Christmas and New Year’s Eve, when drivers are prone to get behind the wheel even though they are not sober.

Last year’s (2012) Christmas and New Year campaign resulted in 3,147 drivers for driving while impaired (DWI), while 3,627 DWI’s were cited in 2011. Mecklenburg, Wake and Guilford counties report the highest number of DWI charges every year.

More About North Carolina’s State Booze It & Lose It Campaign

The “Booze It & Lose It” campaign zeros in on drunken drivers with innovative and extensive anti-driving while impaired (DWI) enforcement and education. Close to 2,000 sobriety checkpoints are continually set up in all North Carolina counties as part of the state’s highly effective anti-drunk driving campaign.

Law officers use six mobile breath-alcohol testing units, better known as BATMobiles, to increase the efficiency of on-site DWI processing. Each BATMobile is equipped with workstations for Intoxilyzer 5000 breath test instruments, cellular telephones, computers, officers’ workstations, magistrates’ work area, lavatory, DWI checkpoint signs, traffic cones, traffic vests, search batons, screening tests devices and all other necessary equipment and supplies for processing DWI suspects.
Source: NC Governors Highway Safety Program

Message To Drivers This Holiday Season

Please be safe. If you know you are going to have a few drinks during your holiday celebrations, please designate a sober driver or simply stay where you are until you are sober before getting on the road. Have a safe, happy holiday!