FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2002
CONTACT: SID GAULDEN, 803-896-8755

COLUMBIA -- The South Carolina Department of Public Safety today announced the kickoff of Operation SOS: Sober or Slammer, a statewide DUI enforcement campaign set to correspond with the Christmas/New Year's holidays when drinking and driving historically peaks both in South Carolina and nationwide. DPS also introduced today a 21-member DUI enforcement team of troopers dedicated to the Midlands, Pee Dee/Grand Strand and Upstate areas where the DUI problem is the worst.

Beginning this Friday and running through Jan. 5, law enforcement from all over South Carolina will begin conducting public safety checkpoints and saturation patrols as part of the campaign. DPS also will join the Operation C.A.R.E. National Holiday Lifesavers Weekend Dec. 20-22.

Operation SOS: Sober or Slammer is a multi-agency enforcement and public education campaign aimed at reducing fatalities, serious injuries and collisions resulting from drunken driving. The DUI problem in South Carolina continues to grow, particularly in Greenville, Spartanburg, Richland and Horry counties where the DUI team will concentrate its efforts. From 1997-2001, there were more than 23,000 collisions involving alcohol in South Carolina. Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands more seriously injured during that same time frame because of impaired driving.

“We are teaming up with local law enforcement agencies, detention centers, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), county coroners and solicitors’ offices to send a strong message to the public,” said DPS Director B. Boykin Rose. “By fighting this violent crime as a unified team, we optimize the chances that a drunk driver will be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The Operation SOS: Sober Or Slammer campaign is funded through a $2.2 million federal grant. The grant calls for a statewide anti-DUI campaign to be conducted in the months of December and July of each year containing enforcement, media, and educational strategies designed to address the growing problem of drinking and driving in the state of South Carolina. The campaign will serve as part of a regional effort in the Southeast by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called “You Drink and Drive. You Lose” to curb the tragic consequences of impaired driving.

The DUI Enhanced Enforcement Team grant, in the amount of $1.6 million, will fund three DUI Enhanced Enforcement Teams, comprised of seven seasoned troopers each, in Patrol Districts One (Midlands area), Three (Upstate area), and Five (Pee Dee/Grand Strand area). DUI enforcement and education will be the primary focus of the officers assigned to these teams.

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*** Please visit the Operation SOS: Sober or Slammer web site at www.soberorslammer.com or from the DPS site at www.scdps.org.

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