Cape Coral police cracking down on drunk drivers

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CAPE CORAL, Fla. – The Cape Coral Police Department (CCPD) held their third impaired driving enforcement operation over the weekend and made seven arrests in a span of four hours.

In 2015, 56 people have been killed in Lee County because of some sort of traffic crash, making this one of the deadliest years yet. This year, Cape Coral has also seen a spike in deaths related to drunk driving, that’s why police are now staging saturation patrols.

“We do need to get them off the road. Like you saw, we did have a lot of DUI-related crashes this year and we want our roadways to be the safest in the state,” Corporal Nicholas Green with CCPD told WINK News during a ride along.

Out of the nine deadly crashes in Cape Coral this year alone, seven of those have been alcohol related, compared to three DUI-related deaths in all of 2010.

“It’s such a tragedy and it’s such a loss of life, especially since this is such a preventable crime,” said Lori Burke with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

Burke says she’s shocked people are still getting behind the wheel despite the amount of taxi services and ride sharing opportunities.

“Even a limo would be less expensive than getting a DUI,” Burke said.

The Cape’s most recent DUI death was on the Fourth of July, killing one man. However just days ago, WINK News learned a second person also died following that crash.

“People came down wanting to enjoy our beautiful environment in Southwest Florida and you know, now they’ve paid the ultimate price,” Burke said.

CCPD will continue having impaired driving operations until the end of September.

 

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