Drive Sober Initiative Sees Higher Numbers than Previous Efforts

Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s deputies took part in a state and nation-wide effort to keep roads safe over the Labor Day weekend through the “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign. Deputies made eighteen arrests from August 17^th through September 3^rd. 

Chief Deputy Ryan Waldschmidt says the numbers are a bit higher than expected. He compares the numbers to the last effort “over Memorial Day this spring and for example we had eleven drunk driving arrests in that campaign, and 84 speeding violations. Those are probably the two most serious offenses just because speed and drunk driving tend to injure or kill more people than some of these other violations like driving without a license.”

Waldschmidt hopes the efforts of deputies and the media helped get the point across “to just create that awareness for citizens and the motoring public that they’re hearing it on the radio as they drive their car, they’re seeing it on TV as they’re sitting at home watching TV at night – and they’re certainly seeing our deputies throughout the county and law enforcement throughout the state and even the nation participating in this and stepping up those highway safety efforts.”

There were 152 speeding violations documented over the past two weeks – along with 23 safety belt violations, 43 violations for operating after revocation, and 27 drug arrests. 

Even with these numbers, Waldschmidt tells us “the good news is – we didn’t have any fatalities – and just a handful
of injury-related crashes. But nothing significant. We didn’t have any major
OWI-related injury or fatality crashes during the course of this campaign and
certainly taking eighteen drunk drivers off the highways could have very well
saved some lives over just these two weeks.”