Sheriff Craig Webre announced the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office will conduct a seat belt checkpoint and a DWI checkpoint on Friday, August 25 in Lafourche Parish. These checkpoints are being held in conjunction with the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign which runs August 19 through September 3, 2017. The campaign is coordinated and funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission.

The seat belt checkpoint will be conducted during the afternoon and evening hours on Friday, and the DWI checkpoint will begin Friday evening and continue into the early morning hours of Saturday, August 26. During the seat belt checkpoint, deputies will focus on checking motorists for seat belt and safety seat violations, and during the DWI checkpoint, deputies will be looking for drivers who are possibly impaired while checking for other traffic safety issues.

In addition to the checkpoints, additional deputies will be assigned to saturated patrol efforts targeting impaired drivers, and deputies will also participate in another checkpoint to be announced by another local agency.

Sheriff Webre reminds citizens to designate a driver if you are going to drink. Motorists suspected of DWI who refuse to submit to a breathalyzer test will lose their driver’s license for one year (first offense). For a second offense, the penalty increases to two years. Anyone convicted of a DWI offense while their driver’s license is suspended because of another DWI offense will face automatic prison time. Lafourche Parish is also a “No Refusal” parish, meaning if a suspected drunk driver refuses a breathalyzer test, deputies will seek a search warrant to have that person’s blood tested.