Effingham Joins State Officials in Proclaiming December Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month

(PICTURED BEHIND MAYOR MERV GILLENWATER ARE EFFINGHAM POLICE DEPARTMENT STAFF. LEFT TO RIGHT: DETECTIVE SCOTT VOLPI, CORPORAL ANDY WARNER, SERGEANT MARK PIKE, CHIEF MIKE SCHUTZBACH, DETECTIVE SERGEANT TODD EBBERT, OFFICER KEITH WHITTEN, AND DETECTIVE AARON LANGE)

Impaired driving is one of America's deadliest crimes. For the last several years in the United States, approximately 11,000 people died each year in highway crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver--slightly above 30% of all motor vehicle crash fatalities. In Illinois in 2013, 991 people lost their lives in motor vehicle crashes and hundreds of those deaths involved an alcohol and/or drug impaired driver.

Those statistics are why the City of Effingham has announced it is joining Governor Pat Quinn and hundreds of other communities throughout Illinois in proclaiming December Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month.

"The City of Effingham, through our Police Department, is committed to preventing death and injury by stopping impaired driving," said Mayor Merv Gillenwater.

"Everyone has a responsibility to drive sober and a right to drive on roadways free of impaired drivers," Mayor Gillenwater continued. "We all play a vital role in preventing impaired driving and we can all help by sending a strong message to family and friends that impaired driving is not acceptable ad justifiably punishable by law."