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Drink. Drive. Jail. This is the message police will be giving drivers this weekend as multiple agencies will be conducting saturation patrols on our streets and highways. Operation Northern Safety is a concerted effort of law enforcement agencies from Edgewood to Espanola collaborating to enforce traffic laws. Extra officers will be on the highways watching for drunk, aggressive, reckless and other unsafe drivers.

St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on Saturday this year, is notoriously dangerous for drinking and driving crashes. From 2012 to 2016, the St. Patrick’s Day holiday period (6 p.m. March 16 to 5:59 a.m. March 18) saw the loss of 269 lives due to drunk-driving crashes according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The special saturation patrol is intended to remind drivers to slow down, to keep your hands off your phone while driving, to buckle up and to drive sober. Operation Northern Safety has resulted in hundreds of driving citations and arrests during past efforts. The goal is a safe driving environment for everybody.

“Please drive carefully, drive sober, buckle up and slow down for all of our sake. Enjoy the weekend holiday, but don’t drive while impaired," said Lupe Sanchez, Santa Fe County DWI Program Coordinator.

Operation Northern Safety is a joint effort between Santa Fe and Rio Arriba County DWI Programs, Rio Arriba and Santa Fe County sheriff, Española and Santa Fe police, State Police, Pojoaque, Santa Clara and Ohkay Owingeh tribal police.
These operations will continue throughout the year so that we all can Arrive Alive.

For more information, contact:
Peter Olson, Santa Fe County DWI Program
Phone: (505) 992-9844
polson@santafecountynm.gov