Police to target drunken drivers Labor Day weekend brings more drinking and driving, but law enforcement is ready. Fri, Apr. 18, 2006 By Vernon Clark Inquirer Staff Writer In the run-up to the Labor Day weekend, the message from area law enforcement agencies and Mothers Against Drunk Driving is simple and direct: "Drunk driving. Over the limit. Under arrest." Police, MADD officials, and people injured by drunken drivers gathered outside the Pennsylvania State Police Barracks on Belmont Avenue in Philadelphia yesterday afternoon to announce a national crackdown on drunken driving that will run through Labor Day, Sept. 4. "Over 16,000 deaths every year, and many more injuries, and my son was one of those deaths in 1996. That's a terrible waste of lives," said Bryce Templeton, chairman of MADD Penn-Jersey, as he stood in front of about 30 state police officers to announce a nationwide crackdown timed for the waning days of summer and the Labor Day weekend. "If you drink and drive this Labor Day, you will be arrested. No exceptions. No excuses," Templeton said. Law enforcement officials said that now through the holiday, sobriety checkpoints and roving police patrols would target impaired drivers throughout the region and the state. "We will be focusing on the Labor Day weekend, a time of heavy drinking, a time of too much drinking and driving, and a time of far too many DUI deaths," Templeton said. Last year, 16,885 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes, amounting to 39 percent of all traffic fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In Pennsylvania, 523 people were killed in drunken-driving crashes in 2005. Col. Jeffrey Miller, Pennsylvania State Police commissioner, said that in 2005, "state troopers arrested 13,406 people for driving under the influence, which is the highest number for a single year in the history of the Pennsylvania State Police." Miller attributed the rise in arrests to stepped-up police training and enforcement efforts. Chief Inspector Anthony DiLacqua, head of the Philadelphia Police Department's Patrol Bureau, said city police would run sobriety checkpoints and roving patrols. He said that drunken-driving arrests had increased over the last two years. During the same period, the number of DUI-related auto accidents has dropped, he said. "If you drive while intoxicated, you will be stopped, you will be arrested, you will be handcuffed," DiLacqua said. "You will be put into a cell. More than likely, your license will be suspended. You will face possible jail time." Les Toaso, a state Department of Transportation official, said drunken driving increases during the summer holidays. "Last year during Labor Day weekend, there were 34 alcohol-related crashes in the five-county Philadelphia region, including one fatality," he said. Emphasizing how drunken driving shatters lives, a tearful Ramona Santiago of Philadelphia said that three years ago she suffered severe spinal injuries in a head-on crash with a drunken driver on the Atlantic City Expressway. "I had a fractured spine, and I had spinal fusion. Because of my injuries, I have trouble doing the simplest things, like tying my shoes, because it hurts," Santiago said. "This was a tragedy that shouldn't have happened in the first place. No one should suffer the pain I suffer." Contact staff writer Vernon Clark at 215-854-5717 or vclark@phillynews.com.