Neillsville Police Department Part of "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over," Part 1
Monday, August 24th, 2015 -- 1:31 PM
-In an effort to save lives and prevent injuries, the Neillsville Police Department will join law enforcement agencies from all over Wisconsin in the annual "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign going on now until September 7th.The goal is not to arrest more drunken drivers, but to deter drunken driving so we can reach zero preventable traffic deaths. Last year, there were 162 fatalities in alcohol-related crashes. Neillsville Police Chief Scott Klueckmann talked about the dangers of driving impaired.
Chief Klueckmann said, "Driving is an activity that's about 10% physical and probably 90% mental. It doesn't take a lot of physical ability to maneuver a steering wheel or to push the petals of a vehicle, but it takes a lot of mental ability. You're making decisions, estimating speeds of other vehicles and making many decisions almost simultaneously. Alcohol and drugs, obviously, cause changes in your judgement, your depth perception, fine motor skills, all of which are required to drive safely. Of course, once you have those impaired abilities and skills that leads to unsafe driving, traffic violations and, eventually, car crashes."
Chief Klueckmann provided some numbers about drunk driving locally and at the state level. Unfortunately, it proves the drunk driving is all too common in Wisconsin.
"Statewide, I looked at the statistics yesterday, Wisconsin has the highest rate of drunken driving in the nation," Chief Klueckmann said. "Last year, drunk driving fatalities, which is a blood alcohol content of .08 or more, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation reported 162 fatalities. On the local level, I looked at our numbers, over the past 5 years Neillsville's had 80 drunken driving arrests. So that's an average of about 16 per year or little over 1 a month. Our highest year was 2013 with 24 arrests. And currently, with 2015, we're at 18 arrests so far, so I expect to meet or surpass 2013's number."
The Drive Sober Campaign runs now through the 7th.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.