Dedicated to reducing the numbers of traffic crashes and fatalities in the state, the Governor’s Highway Safety Program aims to reduce traffic crashes in North Carolina while promoting highway safety through a variety of safe-driving initiatives.

This Labor Day, the most prominent initiative is the ‘Booze It & Lose It’ campaign.

Recognized as one of the nation’s most effective anti-drunk-driving campaigns, Booze It & Los​e It has created increased awareness of the dangers and the consequences of drinking and driving through frequent education campaigns and extensive enforcement of impaired-driving laws.

However, even with the success of Booze It & Lose It, more than 9,000 people have lost their lives in alcohol-related crashes in North Carolina since the program’s induction in 1994.

In 2019 alone, the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Labor Day Booze It & Lose It Campaign reported 79 crashes in Chatham County, 187 crashes in Orange County and 529 crashes in Durham County.

Of these crashes, 30 were reportedly drug and alcohol related.

Mark Ezzell is the Director of the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program.

He said during enforcement campaigns like Booze it & Lose It, law enforcement agencies increase the number of patrols and officers in an area and set up checking stations in an attempt to curb impaired drivers.

“Research says that increased enforcement helps in two ways,” Ezzell said. “One is pretty obvious – it gets impaired drivers off the road. The second way is a little more upstream – and that is if the word gets out to the public that there’s going to be more officers on the road this year than normal and if the word gets out around friends and neighbors, well then those friends and neighbors might think twice about having that second or third drink.”

This Labor Day, the Governor’s Highway Safety Program is joining forces with the North Carolina Trucking Association, the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, the North Carolina Highway Patrol and members of more than 500 law enforcement agencies around the state to help enforce and reduce impaired driving.

Ezzell said all these partners, combined with public messaging and social media, have created a new way for the Governor’s Highway Safety Program to reach more people and subsequently reduce the number of driving injuries and fatalities.

“We know we can’t enforce our way out of the problem of impaired driving,” Ezzell said. “When a law enforcement officer meets an impaired driver, in a sense, we’ve already made a mistake because that person has gotten so far that they’re actually behind the wheel. We want to prevent that as much as possible.”

For more information on the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, click here.

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