Delaware Office of Highway Safety and Law Enforcement Plan for St. Patrick’s Day

(SUSSEX CO. Del) – St. Patrick’s Day weekend is one of the busiest drinking holidays in the state of Delaware, according to the Office of Highway Safety. And on their end, they’re working with rideshare programs across the state to keep people from getting behind the wheel.

“Sober Rides is, preventative program that provides rideshare vouchers to help people get home safely if they’ve been drinking. So the goal here is to remove the temptation to drive impaired by offering a safe, alternative to go home,” says Highway Safety Community Relations Officer, Caitlin Reed.

Delaware law enforcement however, will be cracking down on those who plan to get behind the wheel after a few drinks.

As they plan to have checkpoints set up on major roads across the state.

Corporal Lewis Briggs with the Delaware State Police says, “In addition to the checkpoint, additional troopers will be on patrol throughout the state over the Saint Patrick’s Day weekend conducting DUI enforcement. Our goal is to reduce crashes…”

The Office of Highway Safety and law enforcement are encouraging those celebrating to have a designated sober driver over the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. Because small decisions like that can help save a life.

“So 75% of fatal crashes on March 17th and 18th over the past five years have involved impairment. So, you know, that’s the reason that’s how we kind of identify the holidays that we put our overrides into effect, to kind of deter people from drinking and driving,” says Reed.

The free rideshare voucher program has a couple of catches, as they’re offering those 20 dollar vouchers on Saturday the 14th and Tuesday the 17th at 10 A.M. Noon and 3 P.M.

Those are being distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis from the Office of Highway Safety’s website.