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Police around the Houston area hope money from the state will help take drunk drivers off the road this holiday season. The focus of the effort is to save lives.

 

Authorities stayed busy last Christmas responding to hundreds of accidents on Texas highways that involved alcohol.

TxDOT says during last year's holiday period there were 2,400 alcohol-related crashes in the state.  Eight hundred people were hurt. Seventy-eight people died.

"Anybody can listen to those numbers and know that that's just way too high."

TxDOT's Kelli Reyna says they see the same kind of incidents year after year.

"It's either people who decide to drink and drive, whether you're at an office party, you're at a bar, or you're just at home. We know it's the holiday season and we know that people tend to drink a little bit more than they would at any other time of the year."

In the Houston area alone, the numbers are also grim.

Jeff Kaufman with the Houston-Galveston Area Council says Harris County has the highest DWI fatality rate of any major metropolitan area in the country. 

Last year alone, 167 people were killed on Harris County roads as the result of drunk drivers.

"This is an epidemic here in our region, and it's one that has no sense whatsoever."

In response to those high statistics, the H-GAC is coordinating a new DWI Task Force.  The group is administering a $295,000 TxDOT grant.  That money will help law enforcement in an eight-county area with enhanced DWI enforcement efforts. 

Funds will be used during the Christmas holidays, and they'll also be used during summer holidays when people tend to drink a lot.

Kaufman says large police and sheriff's departments have had DWI enforcement grants for years, but the task force will allow smaller departments to conduct their own efforts.

"They might not have the numbers specifically to qualify.  Some of the administrative issues just make it a challenge in order to do the enforcement and administer the grant."

Much of the grant money will be used to pay for police overtime during the "no refusal" period.  That's when police get a search warrant to take a blood sample when a drunk driving suspect refuses to take a field sobriety test. 

And in some places the enforcement effort goes even further. 

Montgomery County prosecutor Warren Diepraam says they've even sent  uncover officers into bars to make sure customers aren't being overserved.

"Prosecutors, police officers, are taking themselves away from their families to make sure there are no more tragedies this Christmas.  This Christmas, I do not want to see any victims in my office telling me that Christmas has been ruined because of a drunk driver."

And even if there isn't an accident, the cost of drunk driving can be steep.

Authorities say the cost of a cab ride is a bargain considering that a first-offense DWI conviction can cost you as much as $17,000 in legal fees and other costs.   

Montgomery County prosecutor Warren Diepraam reads a poem against driving under the influence.

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