St. Lawrence County residents are being warned that local police agencies will participate in a special enforcement effort to crack down on impaired driving Aug. 21 through Sept. 7.

While many spend the Labor Day holiday and the end of summer celebrating with loved ones, state police, St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and local law enforcement agencies are stepping up DWI enforcement efforts on impaired driving, either by alcohol or drugs, to crack down on this deadly epidemic and save lives.

“There will be no warnings,” said Michele James, St. Lawrence County STOP-DWI. “Our message is simple: Don’t drink or drug and drive. Have a plan to get home safely. Don’t Drive, Get a Ride. Violators will lose their licenses; pay increased insurance rates, fines, surcharges and DMV fees; and may have an ignition interlock device installed in their vehicle. Driving impaired is not worth it.”

Research shows that high-visibility enforcement can reduce impaired driving fatalities by as much as 20 percent. Sobriety checkpoints play a key part in raising awareness about the problem. The crackdown is funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with a grant from the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee to the New York State STOP-DWI Foundation.

On Labor Day weekend in 2013, there were 424 crash fatalities nationwide. Almost half (48%) of those fatal crashes involved drivers who had been drinking (.01+ BAC); 38 percent involved drivers who were drunk (.08+ BAC); and more than a fourth (27%) involved drivers who were driving with a BAC almost twice the illegal per se limit (.15+ BAC).

In 2013, approximately 1 in 5 child (12 and younger) passenger deaths were in drunk-driving crashes. Seventy-one percent of the time, it was the child’s own driver who was drunk. Of those child passengers killed while riding with a drunk driver, 44 percent weren’t buckled up at the time of the crash.