Police plan DUI crackdown for St. Patrick's Day weekend
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By MYFOXATLANTA STAFF
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St. Patrick's Day is a holiday associated with Irish pubs and green beer. If those will be included in your celebration, police have a warning for you -- they'll be out in full force this weekend to crackdown on drunk drivers.
If you get behind the wheel after drinking this weekend, you can bet, that the "luck of the Irish" won't get you too far.
"If you're relying on luck to get you home, if you've had too much to drink, I don't care if you have a pocket full of four leaf clovers and have kissed the Blarney Stone, you're going to get in trouble," said Harris Blackwood, Director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety.
The Governor's Office of Highway Safety, along with the Georgia State Patrol and Team Georgia, are warning Georgians that they'll be out in full force this weekend cracking down on drunk driving.
"Seven hundred people from 2005-2011 were killed on the roads of the United States on St. Patrick's Day due to drunk drivers, 700 people. That's nationwide. But that's 700 people who don't get to celebrate another St. Patrick's Day or another birthday or another Christmas or another anniversary," Blackwood said.
Jason Anavitarte was on hand to reiterate that message. He lost his brother to a drunk driver
"March 3, 2002. Sunday morning. My brother Joshua, there's a photo of him over there, was killed by an impaired drunk driver on West Paces Ferry Road in front of Pace Academy and it's a day that changed my life, changed my family's life forever," said Anavitarte.
you can expect increased patrols and DUI checkpoints throughout the metro area this weekend.
"Ladies and gentleman, we are more committed than ever to getting drunk drivers off the road in this state and we're going to do that," said Blackwood.
The state has even created an smartphone app to help you find a sober ride. You can search for it on your phone, or you may see it on coasters at your local watering hole -- 50,000 of them have been distributed. On the back of the coaster is a bar code. You scan it with your phone, and up pops a list of sober rides available to you.
"You just pick your area, find a company that can come pick you up and you've got a sober ride home," said Katie Fallon.
The smartphone app is called Drive Sober Georgia. It gives you a list of cab companies and other transportation options for you to call to get a sober ride in your area.
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