Feb. 20, 2025 - Good times and parades aren’t the only things rolling in Louisiana this Carnival season.
Law enforcement officers will be on patrol around the state, looking for impaired drivers through Mardi Gras, March 4, as part of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission’s Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign.
As part of the campaign, LHSC has produced a video in its Safety Minute video series. You can see the video here or watch it on LHSC's Facebook, Instagram, or X pages.
LHSC makes funds available to law enforcement agencies to pay officers overtime to look for drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Drivers in Louisiana who are arrested and convicted of operating a vehicle while impaired can be sentenced to six months in prison and fined up to $1,000 for a first-offense charge.
“If people drink alcohol, that is their business. If they are drinking and driving, it is the public’s business because they are endangering everyone on the road,” LHSC Executive Director Lisa Freeman said. “Our law enforcement partners around the state will see those impaired drivers, pull them over, and arrest them.”
A drunk driver is 13 times more likely to cause a fatal crash than a sober driver, according to the 2023 Louisiana Traffic Records Summary Report from the Center for Analytics and Research in Transportation Safety at LSU. From 2019 to 2023 during the Carnival holiday in Louisiana, 23 people were killed and 356 people were injured in crashes involving drivers who had been drinking, according to CARTS.
All holidays show a spike in alcohol-related crashes, but more people in Louisiana are killed in alcohol-related crashes during Carnival than any other holiday in Louisiana (see chart below). During Carnival 2023, the latest year for which verified statistics are available, seven of the 11 people killed in crashes were in crashes in which at least one driver had been drinking, according to CARTS.
“Carnival is a time to have fun with friends and family. It is a wonderful part of Louisiana culture,” Freeman said. “Impaired driving is not part of our culture. It is a criminal act that injures and kills children, parents, brothers, and sisters. Through Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over, we are protecting those people who want to celebrate all the good things Louisiana has to offer.”
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