New Canaan Police say they’ll run a sobriety checkpoint in town some time during the last two weeks of December.
In a press release issued Monday morning, police said that in the last year for which statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are available—that’s 2012—Connecticut saw 319 traffic fatalities, of which 43 percent were alcohol-related.
“Nationally there were 10,322 fatalities in crashes involving a driver with a Blood Alcohol Content of .08 or higher—31 percent of total traffic fatalities for the year,” police said in the press release.
Here’s more data from the NHTSA:
- An average of one alcohol-impaired-driving fatality occurred every 51 minutes.
- The rate of alcohol impairment among drivers involved in fatal crashes was four times higher at night than during the day (35 percent versus 9 percent).
- 15 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes during the week were alcohol-impaired, compared to 30 percent on weekends.
- In fatal crashes, the highest percentage of drivers with a BAC level of .08 or higher was for drivers ages 21 to 24 (32 percent), followed by ages 25 to 34 (29 percent).
The checkpoint enforcement effort is funded in party the Connecticut Department of Transportation, Office of Transportation Safety, police said.