Like most cities and towns throughout the Garden State, Ocean City will be cracking down on drunken driving offenses during the year-end holiday season. As a New Jersey DWI and drug DUI defense lawyer, I and my colleagues provide assistance to motorists in Atlantic, Ocean, Monmouth and Middlesex Counties who have been accused of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or prescription medication.
It’s not uncommon for a police officer to pull a driver over for a sometimes minor traffic violation only to arrest the motorist on the ground of driving while intoxicated. Not only does the consumption of beer, wine or hard liquor before taking the wheel offer the opportunity for a drunken driving summons, taking a puff of marijuana can also get a driver in trouble with the law, especially when it’s linked to reckless driving or, worse, a traffic accident.
According to news reports, police departments in many communities will be on the alert for increased drinking and driving violations during the Christmas and New Year holidays. In Cape May County, the Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) will be cracking down on offenders in the coming week. Police are reportedly planning to set up sobriety checkpoints, DWI roadblocks and saturation drunk driving patrols across the area, all designed to keep the motoring public safe during the holidays.
This effort is all part of the national “Over the Limit, Under Arrest” program, which organizers hope will raise awareness about the danger of driving while impaired by alcohol. Using high-visibility enforcement and various educational tools, such as banners, mobile video displays and posters, the 11-year-old program tries to combat drunk driving during one of the busiest travel times of the year.
Police across New Jersey will be putting extra patrolmen on the streets in an effort to get drunk drivers off cities streets and state highways. In Ocean City, for example, the program is providing local government with a $5,000 federal grant to help defer the costs of increased enforcement, which is expected to continue through January 3. One of 115 participating communities, Ocean City law enforcement personnel will be out in force patrolling the local area.
The OCPD hopes to prevent DWI-related traffic deaths during thise high-travel period and strongly suggests that anyone who has had too much to drink call a cab or find a designated driver ahead of time.
For holidays, OCPD plans drunk-driving crackdown, ShoreNewsToday.com, December 13, 2010