Mark Blair, Hartsville Police Department Public Information Officer
mark.blair@hartsvillesc.gov
843.383.3011

For Immediate Release — August 13, 2018

2018 Sober or Slammer Campaign

Hartsville SC – Every day, almost 29 people in the United States die in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes—that’s one person every 50 minutes according to data collected in 2016. Drunk-driving fatalities have fallen by a third in the last three decades; however, drunk-driving crashes claim more than 10,000 lives per year. In 2010, the most recent year for which cost data is available, these deaths and damages contributed to a cost of $44 billion per year.

The Hartsville Police will be participating in the 2018 Sober or Slammer Campaign from August 17 to September 3, 2018. As a part of this campaign, HPD officers will increase enforcement efforts and those efforts will include public safety checkpoints throughout the city. Please don’t drink and drive, and be sure to get a designated driver if you choose to drink. If you see an impaired driver, please call 911 or *HP immediately. Please review some of the signs that may indicate an impaired driver below:

  • Making unusually wide turns
  • Straddling the centerline or driving with their tires on the centerline
  • Driving with their head out of the window, or driving with all car windows down in cold weather
  • Almost hitting another vehicle, object or person
  • Weaving or swerving
  • Driving on the shoulder of the road or in the emergency lane
  • Driving with excessive speed or very low speed
  • Stopping without apparent cause
  • Following too closely
  • Drifting or braking erratically
  • Driving in or crossing into opposite lanes of traffic
  • Changing speeds rapidly or very slowly
The Effects of Blood Alcohol Concentration: BAC and typical effects of various BAC levels
Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) in g/dL Typical Effects Predictable effects on Driving
0.02 Some loss of judgment; relaxation, slight body warmth, altered mood Decline in visual functions (rapid tracking of a moving target), decline in ability to perform two tasks at the same time (divided attention)
0.05 Exaggerated behavior, may have loss of small-muscle control (e.g., focusing your eyes), impaired judgment, usually good feeling, lowered alertness, release of inhibition Reduced coordination, reduced ability to track moving objects, difficulty steering, reduced response to emergency driving situations
0.08 Muscle coordination becomes poor (e.g., balance, speech, vision, reaction time, and hearing), harder to detect danger; judgment, self-control, reasoning, and memory are impaired Concentration, short-term memory loss, speed control, reduced information processing capability (e.g., signal detection, visual search), impaired perception
0.10 Clear deterioration of reaction time and control, slurred speech, poor coordination, and slowed thinking Reduced ability to maintain lane position and brake appropriately
0.15 Far less muscle control than normal, vomiting may occur (unless this level is reached slowly or a person has developed a tolerance for alcohol), major loss of balance Substantial impairment in vehicle control, attention to driving task, and in necessary visual and auditory information processing