“Hands Across the Border” DUI prevention and enforcement campaign starts Monday

Labor Day is just two weeks away and the 33rd annual “Hands Across the Border” drunk and drugged driving prevention and enforcement campaign starts Monday.

There will be two groups of Georgia State Patrol troopers conducting sobriety road checks in Georgia near the state line while law enforcement officers from the neighboring states will be conducting sobriety road checks in their state.

The North Georgia group of GSP Troopers will start Monday in Bremen with Alabama, Tuesday with Tennessee Troopers at the state line near Chatsworth, and on Wednesday, GSP Troopers in our area will meet with South Carolina Troopers at the State line in Hartwell.

The final day has both north and south groups meeting with South Carolina in Savannah.

State troopers and local law enforcement officers in Georgia will partner with their peers in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee to conduct sobriety road checks on both sides of their respective state lines.

The week-long enforcement campaign takes place before the extended Labor Day holiday weekend when many people across the southeast are expected to be on the road for one last summer trip, college football game, or other destinations.

Whether traveling across the state or around the corner, Georgia law enforcement officers are issuing their only warning to not drive under the influence of any impairing substances because state troopers and local law enforcement officers arrest all suspected drunk drivers they find on the road. It is against Georgia law to operate a motor vehicle with a Blood-Alcohol Concentration (BAC) level of .08 or higher.

“Drunk and drugged driving ruins too many lives and can be eliminated if everyone makes the right choice to never drink and drive,” Allen Poole, Director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, said. “When alcohol is part of the plan, then plan ahead for a ride with a sober, designated driver, cab, or rideshare and let family and friends know they can call you anytime they need a ride.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 40 percent of the people killed in crashes during the Labor Day Holiday weekend in Georgia from 2018 to 2022 involved one driver whose BAC was .08 or higher.

60 percent of the drunk driving deaths during the Labor Day Holiday weekend during that five-year period involved a driver whose BAC was twice the legal limit.

According to crash reports, 26 people died in crashes in Georgia during the 78-hour Labor Day Holiday weekend in 2023.

That was the deadliest Labor Day holiday weekend in the state in the last 15 years.

Roger Hayes, Director of GOHS Law Enforcement Services tells WLRH News that there will be no warnings or calls to a friend for those who are stopped for driving over the legal BAC limit.

The next destination for those DUI drivers he said is the local jail.

“Hands Across the Border” began before the 1991 Labor Day Holiday as a friendly wager between state troopers in southeast Georgia and northeast Florida to see which agency could reduce the number of drunk driving deaths in their respective states.

Within ten years, “Hands Across the Border” quickly grew into a week-long education and enforcement mobilization involving all of the states neighboring Georgia.