DUI crackdown: 'Red, White and Busted'

State police from the Emporium, Denton Hill and Kane barracks along with local police departments throughout the region are partnered for this weekend's "Red, White and Busted" campaign.

It's an effort to cut down on drunk drivers over the Independence Day holiday, which studies show to be a peak period for traffic crashes and fatalities, many of them attributed to impaired drivers.

During the '07 holiday period - which includes the weekends before and after July 4 - there were 1,176 crashes in Pennsylvania that were traced to impaired drivers, most of them drunk, and 21 fatalities.

Red, White and Busted involves the use of federal and state funds to cover increased sobriety checkpoints, additional police patrols, and heightened enforcement.

Officers will be making arrests for driving under the influence of not only alcohol, but also marijuana and other illicit drugs, prescription drugs, and even over-the-counter medications.

These can be measured through blood-testing if an officer has probable cause to suspect that a motorist is DUI.

State and local police are already teamed up for DUI enforcement through other federally funded programs. Last year in Pennsylvania, 53,717 people were arrested DUI.

Although alcohol was the leading factor, there were also 8,643 "drugged driving" charges.

Police have issued some sobering statistics: over the past five years, 2,752 Pennsylvanians died as a result of impaired driving crashes. Almost four in 10 traffic fatalities are the result of DUI.

Convicted DUI offenders face jail time, the loss of driving privileges, higher insurance rates, and dozens of other unanticipated expenses.