Law enforcement officers who
began removing impaired drivers from Pierce County roads Thanksgiving Day are
urging potential drinking drivers to call taxis and line-up sober designated
drivers again this weekend.
The Tacoma Pierce County DUI
and Traffic Safety Task Force will conduct a “Night of a Thousand Stars”
enforcement this Saturday night, Dec. 14, midway through a statewide five-week
holiday crackdown on drunk drivers and in conjunction with its local Tow and Go
and Home Safe Bar programs.
The effort, hosted by the
Fife Police Department, will involve more than two dozen officers, deputies and
troopers who will hunt for impaired drivers on high-fatality and injury roads
in and around the city of Fife, including Interstate 5, beginning at 8:30 p.m.
Ten towing companies will be on hand to offer free tows for drivers who have
had too much to drink at a bar beginning Saturday night and through New Year’s
Eve. And to discourage over-serving and assist patrons in lining up sober rides
home, a combined citizen and law enforcement Home Safe Bar team also will be
out bar-hopping.
Greg Dreiling, owner of
Liberty Towing in University Place and coordinator of the Tow and Go program,
said bar patrons need merely to ask their participating bartender for help
calling for a tow. Approximately 200 bars and taverns in the county are being given
information about the program, including a list of participating towers in
their area prepared to offer up to 10-mile free tows and rides home.
“Drivers have options to
avoid being arrested this weekend,” said Lt. Kevin Farris of the Fife Police
Department. “We hope they won’t throw their chances of escaping arrest out the
window by trying to make it home undetected after a night of drinking.”
“It’s amazing how many people
think they can outfox a breathalyzer,” said John Cheesman, Chief of the Fircrest
Police Department and Chairman of the Tacoma Pierce County DUI and Traffic
Safety Task Force. “They’ll drink coffee, chew gum, even meditate to try to
manipulate a reading. But there’s only one sure way to avoid flunking a breath
test and that’s to not drink at all.”
Fifteen drivers on Black
Friday, including those impaired by illegal and prescription drugs, were
arrested during the task force’s emphasis in the area of Sumner, Bonney Lake
and Puyallup. Several officers were diverted from the patrol when a pedestrian
was struck by a vehicle and seriously injured soon after leaving a bar in
Sumner.
Comprehensive efforts like these to reduce
deaths and injuries over the past three years in Fife and Pierce County have
reduced impaired driving deaths and serious injuries by 42 percent. Task force
programs are funded by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission and the
Washington Impaired Driving Council and are administered by Pierce County
Community Connections.
