CMPD kickstarts ‘Booze it and Lose it’ campaign

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and several law enforcement agencies have kicked off a 10-day “Booze it and Lose it” campaign to crack down on drinking and driving around the fourth of July weekend.

Capt. Michelle Hummel, Special Events Commander at CMPD, said the campaign, also called “Operation Firecracker,” started in Fayetteville on Friday.

Drivers can expect to see increased DWI checkpoints and additional officers on the road looking for impaired drivers.

“DWIs affect people every day,” she said.

Hummel said some of the worst crashes involve drivers with a blood alcohol content between .08 and .15 because they think they’re OK to drive. It’s against the law in North Carolina to drive with an alcohol level of .08 or more.

“We have people at a .06 that aren’t making good decisions,” she said.

She said officers don’t only focus on DWIs during holiday weekends.

DWI-related crashes are most frequent during the summer, Hummel said, with 24 percent of all DWI crashes occurring between July 4 and Labor Day.

There’s an average of 234 DWI-related crashes for the month of July in the last three years, according to data collected for the N.C. Motor Vehicle Crash Database. There have been 83 fatalities during that time.

And 53 percent of crashes happen between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. – when Hummel said people are leaving cookouts and lake parties.

She said there have been a total of 526 crashes involving young drivers ages 16-19 over the last three years.

“They need to feel safe to call (their parents),” she said.

Officer Jerry Lecomte with UNCC police said they work to educate incoming freshman and their parents during summer orientations about the consequences of drinking.

CMPD is encouraging people to “make the right choice,” Hummel said, by planning ahead.

“Once you start drinking is not the time to make those plans,” she said.

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 4:28 PM with the headline "CMPD kickstarts ‘Booze it and Lose it’ campaign."