Maryland State Police in Gaithersburg Increase DUI Enforcement

           Police officers throughout Montgomery County have significantly increased DUI patrols in recent weeks. In what they are calling a “concentrated DUI blitz,” police are trying to keep the roads safe for drivers and free of drunk drivers.  So far in 2015, six people have died in car accidents in Montgomery County, and two of these were alcohol-related.  The Maryland State Police Impaired Driving Enforcement team has arrested about 1,200 drunk drivers since last May, and when calculating the average blood alcohol concentration in all of these cases, drivers had 0.13 percent alcohol in their system, which is significantly higher than the legal limit of 0.08.

            Montgomery County Police Sergeant Jason Cokinos said that, “approximately one-third of our collisions involve alcohol.”  Police are worried that as the weather continues to warm up, more drivers are on the roads and some of them are driving under the influence of alcohol.  Montgomery County police and the Maryland State Police will be setting up road blocks for DUI enforcement at high-traffic areas and areas where police believe drunk driving is a problem.  One of the reasons why police are going through such measures for DUI enforcement is to make sure something like the deadly accident last summer does not happen again.  In that accident, a 15 year old was killed after his 17 year old friend, who was believed to be under the influence of alcohol, crashed into a tree.

April is alcohol awareness month, which is just one more reason for people to consider the real dangers of driving drunk.  Recently, a bill was introduced to combat aggressive drunk driving in Maryland. Maryland’s Senate overwhelmingly passed this legislation (46-0) that would allow a victim injured in a drunk driving accident to recover punitive damages from the drunk driver.  A hearing on the bill occurred in Maryland’s House on April 1^st.  Currently, the bill is pending in the House Judiciary Committee.  Legislators, and now police, are trying to do their part to combat the issue of drunk driving in Maryland.

If you or someone you love has been injured or killed in a Maryland accident caused by a drunk driver and would like more information, please call us at (301) 854-9000 to schedule an appointment for a free case evaluation at our Gaithersburg office or one of our other satellite offices located throughout Maryland or visit us online at: http://www.portnerandshure.com/Auto-Accidents/Car-Accidents/Fatal-Car-Accidents.shtml .