The Oklahoma Highway Patrol ENDUI team will partner with law enforcement from across Oklahoma to make sure everyone has a safe New Year’s Eve holiday. This effort is part of the national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over mobilization. Similar efforts will take place across the United States this holiday weekend.
The goal is simple: to make Oklahoma as safe as possible by getting impaired drivers off the roads. Additional deputies, troopers, and officers will be on duty across the state looking for impaired drivers.
During the previous NYE holiday period, there were 149 crashes in Oklahoma. Two of those crashes were fatalities resulting in the deaths of two people. Of those 149 crashes, at least 27 of them were alcohol and/or drug-related. This means that more than 18 percent of NYE crashes in 2020 that involved a potentially impaired driver.
Checkpoints and Saturation Patrols
Law enforcement across Cleveland and Oklahoma counties will have extra patrols on the roads looking for impaired drivers.
A checkpoint is planned in Tulsa County for New Year’s Eve from 10 p.m. Dec. 31, until 1 a.m. Jan. 1, 2022. Agencies involved with this checkpoint include the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Bixby and Broken Arrow police departments, Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, and the Muskogee (Creek) Nation Lighthorse Police.
Another checkpoint is planned in Muskogee on New Year’s Eve. The checkpoint will start at 9 p.m. and is scheduled to end just before midnight. Once the checkpoint has finished, all the officers, deputies, and troopers working the checkpoint will hit the streets to join the others looking for impaired drivers. Agencies involved include the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Muskogee Police Department, Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office, and the Muskogee (Creek) Nation Lighthorse Police.
The Custer County Sheriff’s Office and Clinton Police Department will conduct a saturation patrol with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol starting in the evening of Dec. 31 until the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2022.
Everyone is highly encouraged to find a safe ride by calling a sober driver, using a cab, Uber, Lyft or any other ride-share service. Better yet, have a designated driver. Have fun and enjoy life, but do not, under any circumstances, drive while impaired by alcohol or any other substance. The cost is too high. Let’s ENDUI.
The ENDUI enforcement team coordinates multi-jurisdictional events on a regular basis, including sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols. These efforts are needed to impact Oklahoma’s impaired driving problem across the state. The locations of these activities are driven by data from the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office and by local request.
