WHAT: The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is joining the Georgia State Patrol, GOHS Western Region Traffic Enforcement Network, and Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to conduct sobriety road checks at the Georgia/Alabama state line during the first night of the week-long “Hands Across the Border” drunk and drugged driving prevention campaign. Local law enforcement agencies in the GOHS Regional Traffic Enforcement Networks and the Georgia State Patrol will conduct sobriety road checks along the Georgia’s state line prior to the start of the Labor Day holiday travel period while state and local law enforcement in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina will be conducting checkpoints in their respective states. It is against the law in Georgia to operate a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration level (BAC) of .08 or higher. “Hands Across the Border” began in 1991 when Georgia State Patrol troopers in southeast Georgia joined their counterparts at the Florida Highway Patrol in northeast Florida to reduce an increase in drunk driving deaths in the area with enhanced enforcement. The campaign quickly expanded to include all states neighboring Georgia within ten years. “Hands Across the Border” takes place during the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” high-visibility enforcement campaign that began on August 15 and runs through September 2.
WHY: All drunk driving deaths are completely preventable because all drunk driving crashes are caused by someone who made the decision to drive after drinking. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 36 percent of the people killed in traffic crashes in the United States during the 2023 Labor Day holiday weekend involved at least one alcohol-impaired driver with a BAC limit of .08 or above. More than 60 percent of the impaired drivers killed in crashes during the 2023 Labor Day holiday weekend in the United States had a BAC that was almost twice the legal limit. In Georgia, 11 of the 25 people killed in crashes during the 2023 Labor Day holiday weekend involved at least one driver whose BAC was .08 or higher. From 2019-2023, 40 percent of the people killed in traffic crashes in Georgia during the Labor Day holiday weekend involved a driver with a BAC of .08 or higher.
