In an effort to reduce impaired-driving deaths, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado State Patrol are again collaborating on “The Heat is On,” an initiative that runs throughout the year, with 15 specific high-visibility impaired-driving enforcement periods, including the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Enforcement periods may include sobriety checkpoints, saturation patrols and additional law enforcement on duty dedicated to arresting impaired drivers.
This year in Colorado there have been 184 impaired-driving deaths. One-in-three traffic deaths in the Centennial state involve an impaired driver. Between November through December of last year, 23 people died on Colorado roads because of impaired drivers.
Additionally, during last year’s Thanksgiving Weekend DUI enforcement period, 423 drivers were arrested for driving under the influence, nearly a 20% increase from 2023.
At the beginning of the summer, the Estes Valley Voice sat down for an interview with Estes Park Police Department officer Sgt. Skylar Watson to talk about impaired-driving in the Town of Estes Park.
Over the past three years, EPPD officers made 100 DUI arrests, with 42 of last year. Arrests for impaired driving rise from Memorial Day to Independence Day through Labor Day, and then rise again beginning in November through New Year’s.
According to local arrest records released to the media, Estes Park police made four DUI arrests in a 14-day period between Nov. 7 and Nov. 22.
Colorado’s Expressed Consent Law
According to the state’s Expressed Consent Law (CRS § 42-4-1301.1), at the time of arrest Colorado drivers automatically agree to provide a blood or breath toxicology test if a law enforcement officer has probable cause and suspects that the driver is impaired by alcohol or drugs, including cannabis, prescription medications and illegal substances.
Drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs have reduced reaction times and reduced peripheral vision as demonstrated by “Shift into Safe: Get a Safe Ride Home,” a 31-second video that drives home this point.
Even if a blood alcohol content is less than 0.05%, a driver can still be arrested for a DUI if an officer observes signs of impairment.
In “The Long Road: Navigating a DUI Arrest,” a series of six new videos by CDOT about impaired-driving, Erin Agee spoke about the impact on her family who lost her nephew, Dalton Makepeace McCrary, who was killed by a drunk driver as he was walking home from a skatepark. McCrary said that it is “cheaper to get a limousine than a DUI.”