Labor Day weekend is approaching, the unofficial end of summer.
It’s also one of the most popular drinking weekends of the year and authorities will be out in full force looking for those driving under the influence.
Local and State police will be patrolling in southwestern Pennsylvania.
PennDOT says there were 1,214 crashes during the Labor Day holiday weekend last year in PA with 17 deaths and 817 injured, 90 of those were alcohol-related. 20 injuries were drug-related.
State Police made 515 of those DUI arrests across Pennsylvania. There were 45 alcohol-related crashes. Four of those were fatal.
Porth Authority Police will also be participating in the national DUI enforcement program, “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.”
“Lives can be changed or gone in an instant because someone used poor judgement and got behind the wheel while impaired,” said Penn State Health Life Lion Chief Flight Nurse Dan Schaeffer.
“These crashes and their results are heartbreaking every time, because they are completely preventable.”