By James Bell
Hays Post

The Hays Police Department will participate in the “You Drink. You Drive. You lose.” campaign that began last week until Sept. 2.

The campaign is an effort to identify drivers under the influence of drugs and alcohol and is in conjunction with almost 190 other local and state agencies that are also participating and is underwritten by the Kansas Department of Transportation.

“Hays Police Department will have extra officers out, along with the officers on duty extra officers will be assigned for DUI enforcement,” said Don Scheibler, Hays chief of police. “Our goal is to identify drivers under the influence and get them off of the street.”

“According to KDOT, alcohol and other drugs are implicated in 40 percent of the crash deaths on Kansas roads,” according to a press release from the department. “Every two days someone suffers death followed by a death notification visit to loved ones, all because a decision was made to drive while impaired.”

KDOT attributes 23 percent of fatal car accidents to chemical impairment and accidents involving an impaired driver are ofter more severe.

“The risk of serious injury in an impairment crash is almost five times that of the crash where such impairment is determined to have not been a factor,” the release said. “More striking is the fact that the risk of death is over fifteen times higher in the case of an impairment crash.”