Drunk driver crackdown starts Friday

The latest national crackdown on drunk driving starts Friday, featuring a new slogan: "Drive Sober, or Get Pulled Over."

A more familiar warning - "Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest" - is also being used, including by New Jersey and the Delaware River Port Authority.

The campaign runs through the Labor Day Weekend, ending Sept. 5.

"Local and state police will conduct saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints, looking for drivers who may be driving while intoxicated," explains Ed Kasuba, spokesman for the DRPA, which will step up enforcement on its bridges.

The crackdown is spurred by the grim statistics about how deadly drunk driving can be. In 2008, Pennsylvania reported 492 fatalities from crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers, while New Jersey reported 155 cases, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

The latest campaign is spending $14 million for ads, in English and Spanish, that will target "young male drivers and motorcycle riders, who are the most common perpetrators of this deadly crime," according to www.stopimpaireddriving.org, an NHTSA website.

Although the previous crackdown ran from Dec 6, 2010, to Jan. 2, a variety of ad campaigns run throughout the year.

Around St. Patrick's Day, the main message was: "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk." For Halloween and Thanksgiving, the primary slogan will be "Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving," followed by the return of "Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest," for the December holiday season.