While the professionals in the Super Bowl on Sunday can focus on scoring touchdowns and landing big plays, fans should plan a defensive strategy against drunken driving, officials said.
“We want people to plan ahead, take a taxi or get a designated driver,” Washington State Patrol trooper Kirk Rudeen said.
Super Bowl Sunday is notorious for drunken driving collisions, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The championship football game ranks behind only New Year’s Eve for being the worst holiday for drunken-driving fatalities.
“In terms of drunk driving, your best defense is a designated, sober driver and planning ahead of celebrations. As fans, we may not make the game-winning block on the field, but we can make sure drunk driving is blocked, circumvented and never happens,” said Glynn Birch, MADD’s national president.
The State Patrol is adding about 50 percent more troopers to Snohomish County roads this weekend to look for impaired drivers, Rudeen said. It’s a play that’s worked in the past.
Last year, State Patrol troopers arrested nine people in Snohomish County on Super Bowl Sunday; 19 people were arrested in 2006, he said.
“We’re in this for the long haul,” Rudeen said.
In 2007, state troopers arrested a record number of people for drunken driving in the county. In Snohomish County, an extra detachment of state troopers works specifically to find impaired drivers and arrest them.
For the first month of 2008, troopers are already on pace for another record year, Rudeen said.
“We’re doing everything we can to reduce collisions and reduce fatal collisions that take lives,” he said. “We know the greatest thing we can do is take impaired drivers off the road.”
With Seattle’s team sidelined after losing to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC division championships, Rudeen said he’s not that interested in Sunday’s outcome between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. He just wants to make sure everyone makes it home safely, he said.
“If the Seahawks aren’t in it, to me it really doesn’t matter who wins,” he said.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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