Law enforcement is out in force this week to help to try to prevent drunk driving accidents during the Labor Day weekend. According to Missoula Police Sgt. Greg Amundsen, the whole state will have extra patrols.

“It is the National Labor Day Drinking and Driving Will Cost You patrol,” Amundsen said. “Here in Missoula county you will see both extra city police officers, highway patrolman and sheriff’s deputies out patrolling this weekend looking for people drinking and driving. You will see it all across the state of Montana. It is actually a nationwide mobilization. It doesn’t matter where you are traveling to this weekend, you will see extra patrol.”

Actually, the extra patrols have already been activated.

“This push actually started on August 15,” Amundsen said. “They get a couple weeks of run up to the weekend. I can’t speak specifically to the Labor Day weekend, but I do know throughout the state of Montana we are seeing a slow decline in serious injuries related to alcohol consumption and operating a motor vehicle.”

Though there is a recent decline in drug and alcohol related crashes, Montana has a long way to go to improve its driving record. Montana continues to have one of the highest highway fatality rates in the nation and approximately 60 percent of those fatalities involved drugs or alcohol.

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