It’s a massive regional effort to keep drunk drivers off the roads this holiday weekend. It’s called “Drunk Driving: Over the Limit, Under Arrest.”

Law enforcement agencies throughout southeastern Michigan and the Midwest are cracking down on impaired drivers with increased patrols.

Michael Witter, Midwest Administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says while the country experienced a drop in impaired-driving fatalities in recent years, “the numbers are still too high.”

32 percent of fatal crashes involve a driver with a blood-alcohol level of point-zero-eight or above, an average of one fatality every 45 minutes. That’s 12 thousand fatalities in 2008 alone.

Witter says the message is clear: “If you are driving impaired, we will arrest you.

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