VCU Police Set Sobriety Checkpoint

Share this story

Virginia Commonwealth University Police will target drunken and drug-impaired drivers on Saturday night, May 5.

VCU Police will operate a sobriety checkpoint between 11 p.m. Saturday and 3 a.m. Sunday. The checkpoint will take place along the 700 block of West Main Street. Officers also will check for seatbelt compliance.

The checkpoint is being funded through a Zero Tolerance Grant from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. Officers from the Virginia State Police and Richmond Police Department and agents from the Virginia ABC Bureau of Law Enforcement have been invited to participate in the operation.

Sobriety checkpoints consistently have reduced alcohol-related crashes, typically by about 20 percent, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was published in the December 2002 issue of Traffic Injury Prevention.

According to the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration, nearly 17,000 people in the United States were killed in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes in 2004, representing nearly 40 percent of all traffic-related fatalities. Drugs other than alcohol – such as marijuana and cocaine – are involved in 18 percent of motor vehicle driver deaths.