Booze It & Lose It Out In Force This Weekend

As people get ready to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day this weekend---the state is launching its Booze It and Lose It campaign.

North Carolina's Booze It and Lose It program is  a statewide effort by the N.C. Department of Transportation and the Governor's Highway Safety Program to crack down on drunken driving, to reduce dangerous crashes and to improve safety on North Carolina roadways.

Don Nail is the director of the Governor's Highway Safety Program. He says for the next four days (March 14-17), law enforcement officers will make themselves more visible across the state at check points to monitor the sobriety of drivers.  According to Nail, if more non-drinkers do their part, there will be fewer arrests and fewer accidents. “Be aware of what your friends are doing, make sure they're not drinking and getting behind the wheel," says Nail. "Prior to leaving the bar, party or wherever you are, make sure you'll be driving since you haven't been drinking."  Nail says in 2013 during the St. Patrick's Day holiday, nearly 700 drivers were cited for driving while impaired by alcohol. The counties with the highest DWI numbers were Wake (54 DWI), Guilford (33 DWI) and Forsyth (31 DWI). The increased police surveillance ends Monday (March 17) at midnight.