SOUTHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WKBN) – “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.” That’s the message from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Beginning Friday through September 2, the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign shifts into high gear, with local and state officials teaming up to find and arrest impaired drivers before they crash or cause serious injury.
“Everybody behind me has seen this. Over and over again, we show up at a crash involving a drunk driver and it’s not so much that driver, it’s who did you affect — the families, the vehicle they hit, the people who are senselessly injured. It takes a toll on you after a time,” said Trumbull County Sherriff Paul Monroe.
OVI crashes continue to be an issue in Trumbull County. In 2023, there were 20 crashes involving a fatality, killing 24 people. Seventy-five percent of those crashes involved an impaired driver.
“We see impairment in different ways. Not only with just alcohol but mixing alcohol with other drugs — methamphetamine has grown in our area,” Monroe said.