The
Governor’s Highway Safety Program is kicking off ‘Operation Firecracker,’ the annual 4th of July ‘Booze It & Lose It’ enforcement campaign, this year with a community drive-through event which will be on display at the main entrance of Marine Corp Air Station Cherry Point.
The event will take place:
Monday, June 29, 202010 a.m.NCGHSP has recruited area law enforcement departments, military and first responders to flank the well-known entrance to MCAS Cherry Point during the community drive-through which will include visuals with anti-drunk driving messages.
As a key part of the community involvement portion of this event, NCGHSP is encouraging residents across the state to use window chalk and display the hashtag: #KeysFreeNC on their windows in a show of solidarity and to help encourage their fellow North Carolinians to leave the keys behind if they are going to be drinking.
The campaign will run through July 5.
Fast facts:
- According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drunk driving accounted for 29% (10,511) of motor vehicle traffic deaths in 2018.
- With Fourth of July festivities wrapping up in the evening or late at night, more cars will be on the roads at night.
- Nationwide in 2018 alone, 193 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes over the July 4th holiday period (6 p.m. July 3 to 5:59 a.m. July 5). Forty percent (78) of those fatalities occurred in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes.