Sheriff Craig Webre is reminding residents that the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office will conduct checkpoints on July 3, 2019, in Lafourche Parish. A seat belt checkpoint will be conducted during the evening hours of Wednesday, July 3, followed by a DWI checkpoint which will continue into the early morning hours of Thursday, July 4. This checkpoint is being conducted in coordination with the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign which began on Monday, July 1, and runs through July 7, 2019.
During the seat belt checkpoint, deputies will be checking motorists for seat belt and safety seat violations, as well as for proper inspection tags and other potential violations. During the DWI checkpoint, deputies will be looking for drivers who are possibly impaired while checking for other traffic safety issues. These checkpoints are designed to help raise awareness for these types of violations and make the highways of the parish safer for all motorists.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) will be dedicating the DWI Checkpoint on Wednesday night to honor both Lindsey Fontenot and Raymond Bourg. “These two men lost their lives right here in this community, during this holiday season on July 2, 2010, due to an impaired driver who made a terrible decision to get behind the wheel of his vehicle,” said Valerie Cox, Program Director for MADD Louisiana. “Lindsey and Raymond’s family and friends are serving their own life sentences without them now because of a choice that was made which was 100% completely and easily preventable.”
In addition to the checkpoints, as part of the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office has assigned additional deputies to saturated patrol efforts to target impaired drivers and help keep motorists safe.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more people die in drunk driving crashes in July than any other month. The Independence Day holiday itself is particularly deadly. Drunk driving typically accounts for about 40% of all traffic deaths on July 4th and the weekend before or after.
