SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is teaming up with Sacramento law enforcement to combat drunk driving Saturday.
In an event called “Saturation Saturday,” victims of drunk drivers plan to take to the streets with officers.
“What we want people to know, on Saturday night you really have a really good chance of being pulled over if you’re not driving sober,” said Lori Bergenstock, MADD’s program coordinator.
According to MADD, a drunk driver will drive impaired 80 times before being caught once. So this weekend law enforcement agencies from across the area will also launch their "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" campaign.
“This last week of summer it’s just like people are crazy out on the roads,” said Bergenstock. “So it’s where we work with law enforcement to try to remind people why they should not be out on the road after they have been drinking.”
22 law enforcement officers from agencies across the region will be on the lookout for people driving impaired. It all comes as more than 12,000 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes last year, according to MADD.
“We’ve had the biggest year of deaths since 2007. So the more we can work with law enforcement, the more enforcement we have, the fewer people who are going to be impacted through injury or death by a drunk or drugged driver,” said Bergenstock.
When you consider that 1 in 3 people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime, and that every day in America 32 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes, MADD says they’re partnership with law enforcement is critical to getting drunk or drugged drivers off the streets.
“But they would rather pull you over than find you on the road hurt or dead, or that you’ve hurt somebody’s family,” said Bergenstock.
Saturation Saturday is an all day event. State parks plan to have their marine unit out during the day as well.
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