Liberal Police Dept. and several other agencies cracking down on Impaired Drivers

You Drink. You Drive. You Lose.

Citizens are warned that during the period, August 15 through Labor Day, September 2, the Liberal Police Department will join almost 190 other local and state police agencies across Kansas in a crackdown aimed at removing drunk and other drugged drivers from the roadways. You Drink. You Drive. You Lose., is underwritten by the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT).

According to KDOT, alcohol and other drugs are implicated in 40% of the crash deaths on Kansas roads. Every two days someone suffers death followed by a death notification visit to loved ones, all because a decision was made to drive while impaired. Over the past five years the average proportion of fatality crashes attributable to such chemical impairment was 23%, or almost one-fourth of all fatality crashes. The agency also reports that crashes involving at least one impaired driver are likely to be more severe than are other crashes. For example, the risk of serious injury in an impairment crash is almost five times that of the crash where such impairment is determined to have not been a factor. More striking is the fact that the risk of death is over fifteen times higher in the case of an impairment crash. Clearly, impaired drivers need to be taken off the road, for their good and for the good of others sharing the road with them.