Our summer holidays are always something to celebrate. But we also know they have a deadly reputation on the road because too many summer celebrations end with designated drivers left behind at the barbecue. And that means too many Georgians will die in alcohol-related crashes this Labor Day weekend. There’s a traffic fatality every 14 minutes on America’s crash clock with no time off for holidays. As the Crash Clock ticks off the deadly seconds this summer, it will record 11 traffic crashes every minute, with a traffic injury every 13 seconds.

When the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration re-set the National Crash Clock this year, they found time is running out for drunk drivers everywhere. On an average travel day, the National Crash Clock is recording an alcohol impaired driving death every 45-minutes in 2010.

Georgia’s crash data calendar shows the summer travel period here is one of the most dangerous times on our highways. Georgia DOT reported 2,401 traffic crashes last Labor Day just during the 78-hour travel period around the holiday. Nineteen people died, and another 1,069 Georgians were injured. In 2008, more than a thousand people were injured while traveling on Georgia highways during the same Labor Day holiday period.

To Georgia’s highway safety professionals, the causes behind those Labor Day holiday fatalities sound all too familiar: Alcohol and drugs are usually identified as major contributing factors and about half the crash victims are unbuckled when they die.

The sad fact is three-outof 10 of our fatal highway crashes in Georgia each year are caused by impaired drivers. And every one of those tragic alcohol-related deaths is completely preventable! Impaired driving is no “accident.” It’s one of America’s most often-committed and deadliest crimes. Imagine the public outrage if twenty-nine jumbo jets -- each carrying about 400 people --crashed every year in America, killing all on board. That’s the equivalent of the death toll our country suffers due to drunk driving each year.

How can we stop these needless fatal crashes? Every Labor Day Georgia mobilizes thousands of traffic enforcement officers to conduct high visibility sobriety checkpoints and concentrated patrols throughout the state. The mobilization is called Operation Zero Tolerance (OZT) because even first time violators go to jail. In Georgia OZT means you never receive just a warning or citation. Impaired motorists caught driving at or over the 0.08 (BAC) limit are arrested. It’s part of a national DUI enforcement campaign called Over the Limit, Under Arrest.

Georgia’s statewide Operation Zero Tolerance holiday enforcement crackdown begins Friday, August 20 and runs through Monday, September 6, 2010. You see, we even warn motorists what days to watch out for blue lights because in Georgia, it’s not about writing more tickets. It’s about saving more lives. And we hope every driver will pay attention to our enforcement warning.

Remember to designate a sober driver in advance – before the Labor Day festivities begin. Friends should never let friends drive drunk or distracted. So, Buckle-up. Hang-Up. Slow Down. And Drive Sober. Labor Day weekend is every Georgian’s last celebration of summer. Don’t let it be your very last.