Friday, November 6, 2009

On Saturday, October 31, 2009, the Kansas Highway Patrol conducted check lanes and saturation patrols in an effort to help reduce the number of impaired drivers on the roads throughout the state.

Preliminary results from the extra Halloween enforcement efforts indicate that 17 people were arrested for DUI. Two people were under the influence of drugs, and 15 people were under the influence of alcohol. There were 31 preliminary breath tests/standardized field sobriety tests conducted. These are only the arrests and statistics from special enforcement initiatives in the Topeka and Wichita areas, not total statewide results.

In the Wichita area, 855 miles were patrolled as part of the effort. The Wichita RAVE (Roving Aggressive Violation Enforcement) deployment was funded by an Impaired Driving Deterrence Program (IDDP) grant, courtesy of the Kansas Department of Transportation. Eight troopers worked the special enforcement and had contact with 45 motorists.

A check lane was held in Topeka, and a saturation patrol was held in Wichita. In Topeka 141 cars were checked in less than two hours during the lane. Ten troopers and one Topeka Police Department officer participated in the checkpoint. A saturation patrol is when many troopers, and sometimes local police and sheriff's department officers, converge on a specific area, looking for any drivers who are violating Kansas law, whereas a check lane evaluates drivers for signs of alcohol or drug impairment at certain points on the roadway.

In the state of Kansas last year, one alcohol-related crash occurred every 2.61 hours. Every 67.05 hours in the state, someone died in a collision involving alcohol.