Laurel Highlands DUI Task Force planning sobriety checkpoints, patrols

Members of the Laurel Highlands DUI Task Force are planning an enforcement weekend around Westmoreland County later this month.

They’ll be out looking for intoxicated motorists during roving patrols and stationary checkpoints Aug. 19-23. The group did not release specific details or locations but said all of the enforcement activities will take place somewhere in the county.

There are approximately 300 alcohol-related vehicle crash fatalities every year in Pennsylvania, according to PennDOT statistics. About 70% of alcohol-related crashes happened during the night or evening hours and typically on weekends.

There was an average of 9,950 alcohol-related crashes between 2016 and 2019. In 2020, when there were restrictions on driving by state officials that were meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the total number of those type of crashes dropped to 7,700, according to agency statistics.

The task force is made up of police in the following municipalities: Latrobe, Jeannette, Ligonier township and borough, St. Clair, Derry Borough, Mt. Pleasant Borough, Scottdale, Seward, Southwest Greensburg, Penn Township, Greensburg, North Huntingdon and Connellsville.

A 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling held that police have to announce checkpoints ahead of time to meet a minimal standard of consent — if drivers know there’s a checkpoint and still drive, they’re effectively acknowledging that they could run into the checkpoint and be stopped.