• 31
  • January
    2012

Football is the gift that keeps on giving. This weekend, the New York Giants might well give their fans the biggest gift of all: a Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots.

A Super Bowl win would be like a combination of holidays: Christmas, New Year's and the fourth of July all rolled in to one big, happy occasion. However, New York State Police have made it known that they're treating this weekend as a holiday, too. They'll be conducting a three-day crackdown on drunk driving from Friday through Super Bowl Sunday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is joining state and local police departments in issuing public service announcements urging fans and Super Bowl partiers to designate a sober driver to get everyone home safely, and without a DWI arrest, after the parties and the big game.

The campaign's slogan is a take-off on previous DWI campaigns: "Fans don't let fans drive drunk."

According to the Century Council, drunk driving is dropping in New York and across the country.

Between 1999 and 2009, the percentage of alcohol-related fatalities dropped nearly 10 percent, which includes a 27.8 percent drop among drivers under the age of 21.

However, there were 36,093 DWI arrests in New York in 2009, including 279 arrests for people allegedly driving while intoxicated under the age of 18.

In New York, the legal threshold 0.08 percent blood alcohol content.

A first offense can result in up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, a six-month driver's license revocation and the installation of an ignition interlock device in your vehicle.

Source: Fox New York: "Drunken Driving Crackdown on Super Bowl Weekend," Jan. 30, 2012