CADILLAC — Michigan State Police have stepped up patrols for their annual ‘Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over’ campaign.
It kicked off this past weekend, with state police saying that late summer and the Labor Day holiday are some of the deadliest times of the year on Michigan roads.
Trooper Nathan Gilde with Cadillac’s State Police post said patrols have been going well, with more troopers on the roads.
“We’ve already made several OWI arrests, just staying vigilant for any kind of dangerous driving, you know, particularly in the high traffic, weekend holiday times,” said Gilde.
Gilde said crashes are more common this time of year.
“Nights and weekends are like, obviously, the high times for it, but we arrest drunk or impaired drivers [on] weekdays, mornings, and afternoons,” said Gilde.
He said MSP is trying to prevent tragedies.
“That’s a terrible thing about drunk driving or traffic crashes in general. A lot of times there are people affected that had nothing to do with it and did nothing wrong,” said Gilde.
Public information officer, Lieutenant Ashley Miller said in 2024, there were 101 law enforcement agencies involved in this campaign, with more than 6,700 traffic stops in the state.
Of those, there were 116 arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol and 11 citations for operating under the influence of drugs. State Police also had 66 felony arrests and 331 misdemeanor arrests during the campaign.
Miller said State Police have zero tolerance for alcohol or drug related driving.
“There’s no breaks on alcohol offenses. You could spend time in jail, be fined. If there’s a refusal, you could lose your driver’s license. Your insurance could increase. There’s lots of financial penalties that go along with it,” said Miller.
Gilde said some people try to downplay the seriousness of it.
“Just a little bit of weed or I just, you know, it was just one joint. Or they’ll just flat out lie but at the end of the day, somebody is impaired, you know. Well, we can tell, generally, it’s obvious to people without tons of training if somebody is impaired. So, it’s not something that you’re gonna get away with,” said Gilde.
Miller said she thinks the patrols are effective and they are really hoping to reach younger drivers.
“There are more fatal crashes, alcohol related fatal crashes with people under the age of 25. We’re targeting everyone, but what we really want to educate are the younger drivers,” said Miller.