Police to Check For Seat Belt Use, Drunken Drivers

As thousands of people hit the roads this Thanksgiving holiday, law enforcement officials nationwide are beefing up traffic checkpoints to catch drunken drivers and enforce seat belt laws.

In North Carolina, the Booze It & Lose It program, which aims to catch drunken drivers, will extend its efforts to include unbelted children as well.

Local law enforcement agencies plan to set up hundreds of checkpoints throughout the weekend along many major state roadways.

Jill Lucas, public information officer for the Governor's Highway Safety program, said the effort is aimed at keeping children safe on state roadways this weekend.

Three children under the age of 16 have died already this year in alcohol-related accidents, and 29 people died in accidents last Thanksgiving on the state's roads, Lucas said.

"The Thanksgiving holiday has, unfortunately, the tradition as the bloodiest holiday in North Carolina," she said.

The new nationwide efforts resulted in part from a joint campaign between Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign.

Laurie Fink, a spokeswoman for the seat belt campaign, said two of every three children who die in automobile accidents are riding with a drunken driver - a fact that encouraged the group to join forces with MADD to increase the law enforcement presence on roads during holidays. "The main risk kids face are the people in the car with them," Fink said.

Fink said the seat belt campaign's programs, which started in 1997, have had a nationwide effect. "It's been hugely successful," she said. "Child fatalities have dropped 17 percent and restraint use among children jumped dramatically."

Fink said it takes the threat of fines to change some driver's actions. "If they see on the news that law enforcement will be out in their neighborhood, they'll use seat belts," she said. "There is a certain stubborn group of drivers that refuse to buckle up their kids - we call them dead-beat drivers."

A new state law taking effect Dec. 1 will give drivers of unbelted children two points on their licenses, an increase from the current fine of $116.

Shannon Roberts, N.C. executive director for MADD, said the group's local chapters encourage law enforcement agencies to increase their presence during the holidays. Roberts said 10,000 agencies around the nation have agreed to cooperate over Thanksgiving. "Checkpoints in general have been very effective," she said. "At least one person removed from the road each night that had the potential to kill someone."

Roberts said the last Booze It & Lose It campaign had 2,400 infractions in a 2 1/2 week period. MADD runs a statewide campaign during the holidays to encourage individual motorists not to get behind the wheel if they have been drinking.

Lucas said drivers also should be reminded of North Carolina's open container law, prohibiting passengers and drivers from possessing open containers, as they travel over the holidays.

She said checkpoints have used the stops to check not only for drunken drivers and seat belt usage but also expired licenses, insurance and drugs, which have led officers to make several other types of arrests. "It's really quite extraordinary what checkpoints do. If someone comes to the checkpoint and are not buckled up, they're asking for a ticket."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.