Have a safe, sober time on Labor Day

Published 8:17 pm Thursday, August 29, 2013

By Staff Reports

 

As the Labor Day weekend begins, you might notice a few extra people on the job — Texas law enforcement officers stepping up enforcement of traffic laws. The Texas Department of Public Safety, along with local and county officers, will be on the lookout for speeding, driving while intoxicated, and something more this year — driving without insurance.

If you drink and drive this weekend, area law enforcement officials will make you an offer you can’t refuse: “Breathe into this.”

Like last year, Labor Day weekend will be a “No-Refusal” weekend. That means if a driver refuses a breathalyzer test, he or she immediately will be taken in and subjected to blood testing.

Many drivers try to avoid a DWI charge by refusing to take the breath alcohol concentration test. And many attorneys even encourage this.

That won’t be an option this weekend.



“Law enforcement agencies in Smith County will be out in force during the Labor Day Holiday on the lookout for intoxicated drivers on our streets, highways, and area lakes,” says Tyler police spokesman Don Martin. “Officers won’t be taking ‘no’ for an answer once again. The No-Refusal initiative will run Friday, August 30, thru Monday, Sept. 2.”

A state grant is helping to fund the effort.

“Upon the arrest of a suspected drunk driver, he or she will be asked if they would submit to blow into a breath-test instrument or take a blood test,” Martin explains. “If the driver refuses and says ‘no’ to a test, officers will obtain an immediate search warrant signed by an on-call judge to have blood drawn by a certified nurse on staff at the Smith County Jail. The blood will then be analyzed to determine whether the driver’s blood-alcohol concentration is 0.08 or higher, the legal limit for driving in Texas.”

Officers will also be checking for insurance.

“While the legal penalties for driving under the influence are obviously significant, and carry the potential for even greater consequences such as loss of life, the laws related to driving without insurance are also severe,” DPS explains. “First time offenders are subject to a fine of up to $350, plus court costs, and may be assessed additional fees as authorized by Transportation Code Chapter 708. Repeat offenders face fines of up to $1,000 and a two-year driver license suspension, as well as possible impoundment of the car.”

There’s a good reason for that. An estimated 2.5 million drivers in Texas fail to carry insurance, and it costs the rest of us more than $1 billion per year.

In recent years, those numbers have come down, due to better enforcement (it’s easier for officers to check on whether a driver’s insurance card is valid) and a new program called TexasSure. That’s a database that compares registered vehicles to lists of insurance policies. The state sends out notices to drivers who show a registered vehicle but no insurance.

Enforcement crackdowns like the one we’ll see this weekend also help.

Let’s end the summer right — safely, and with memories we’ll cherish, not fines we’ll have to pay.