State Troopers Planning DUI Checkpoints For New Year's Eve

With hours to go before we ring in 2022, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Lt. Mark Southall is getting ready for a busy night.

"It's an important day for us,” said Southall. “It is a day there's a lot of drinking and driving that does occur, and we highly discourage that."

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is planning several DUI checkpoints on Friday night and Saturday morning throughout the state and the Tulsa metro.

Southall says they'll have extra troopers coming in to work overtime, and they’ll be stationed all over.

"Multiple plans, different locations,” said Southall. “Our areas where we have statistically seen intoxicated drivers."

Southall says they'll be out looking for not only people who choose to drink and drive but also drivers under the influence of drugs.

He says in both fatal crashes statewide last New Year’s Eve, drugs played a factor, and troopers are trained in identifying drug use in drivers.

Southall says no matter your plans, there's no excuse to get behind the wheel under the influence.

"If you feel funny, you're going to drive funny,” said Southall. “If you don't feel like you're under the influence of alcohol, but you feel funny, it's going to change the way you drive…There's really no reason to get a DUI nowadays. There's so many resources to have your vehicle either towed to your house or Lyft or Uber. There's so many ways to get home safely."

Several other agencies are helping with the DUI checkpoints this weekend.

Those include Bixby and Broken Arrow Police, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Lighthorse Police.

There are also checkpoints planned for Muskogee.