Kansas City Police plan holiday DUI checkpoints, officers to crack down on drunken drivers

Kansas City, MO

July is one of the deadliest driving months of the year, and 80 percent of the fatal crashes involve drunken drivers.

Police are planning to step up enforcement and are considering setting up DUI checkpoints this holiday weekend.

"We have never had a checkpoint where we arrested zero people," Kansas City police Capt. Rich Lockhart told KMBC's Jim Flink.

Lockhart said the checkpoints serve as a deterrent and they save lives.

"When you're driving through that checkpoint, you're asking yourself, 'Did I have too much to drink? Would I do this again?'" Lockhart said.

One officer said he has worked four fatal crashes during a previous Fourth of July.

The locations of the DUI checkpoints haven't been announced.

Police said they'll also have groups of officers out looking for erratic drivers.

Every year in Missouri, there are nearly 8,000 alcohol-related crashes. Over the last five years, an average of at least 250 people have died each year in those crashes.

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