Officers will be looking for drunken drivers during extra patrols on the North Olympic Peninsula beginning Friday and extending through the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Participating in the patrols will be law enforcement officers affiliated with Clallam and Jefferson counties’ sheriff’s offices, as well as the Port Angeles, Sequim and Port Townsend police departments and the State Patrol.
Traffic deaths that involve a drunken and/or drugged driver are highest during the summer months, said Kate Carlsen, a spokeswoman for the state Traffic Safety Commission.
From 2005 through 2009, more than 20 percent of all impaired-driver-involved traffic deaths occurred during June and July, she said.
“Encouragingly, 2010 preliminary data shows that the number of deaths involving a driver under the influence of alcohol or drugs decreased by 17 percent from the previous five-year average of 276,” said Lowell Porter, director of the state Traffic Safety Commission.
“I think this shows that more of Washington’s citizens are choosing to drive sober,” Porter said.
“However, with 229 deaths, we still have a long way to go. Even one life lost as a result of an impaired driver is unacceptable.”
The extra patrols will be funded through a grant from the state Traffic Safety Commission.
They are supported by the Clallam County DUI Traffic Safety Task Force and the Jefferson County Traffic Safety Task Force.
