INDIANAPOLIS, IN– Police across the state are cracking down on drunk driving on Saint Patrick's Day by ramping up patrols and stopping drivers at DUI checkpoints. "If you get behind the wheel of a car tonight and you're intoxicated there's a pretty good chance we're gonna get you, we're certainly gonna be looking for you," Sgt. Michael Duke, the DUI unit supervisor for IMPD, said. Starting at 6 p.m., drivers made their way through a checkpoint in downtown Indianapolis. IMPD officers said by 10 p.m. Friday, it had netted five DUI arrests, making for a total of about a dozen between the checkpoint and roaming patrols since noon. "We're trying to keep people from running into other people, running over people, we're trying to stop tragedies," Duke said. According to the Indiana Department of Transportation, between 2011 and 2015 more than 250 people died in car crashes during the Saint Patrick's Day holiday. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports more than 10,200 people died from alcohol impaired crashes in 2015 and that the chance of being in an alcohol impaired crash is one in three over the course of a lifetime. Those are statistics police want to cut down. "You know we'd rather hopefully save some lives than ruin some nights," Duke said.
Police remind you to make a plan, have a designated driver, call a car service or walk, and for everyone on the road to pay extra attention.
