It’s a situation we’ve all been in: You make a seemingly minor mistake — forgetting to signal, rolling through a stop sign — and suddenly you see red and blue lights flashing in your rearview mirror.
It’s somewhat embarrassing and certainly annoying to be pulled over by a cop, but these traffic stops are more important than they seem. As this week’s front page story points out, minor infractions can be a sign of an alcohol- or a drug-impaired driver.
During the state’s recent Drive Hammered, Get Nailed campaign, Snohomish County law enforcement made 339 DUI arrests in a 25-day span — an average of 13 a day. And those are just the ones who were caught.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, impaired drivers were responsible for 11,773 deaths in 2008. If it weren’t for dedicated police officers working to get these drivers off the streets, this toll could have been much higher. South County residents should be grateful for the efforts of our local police officers in keeping our roads safer.
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