LITH Police Increase Enforcement For Holidays

The Lake in the Hills Police Department will increase enforcement during late-night hours over the holidays.

The late-night enforcement plan is meant to cut down on the number of fatalities and injuries on roadways over the Christmas and New Years' holiday season, according to a LITH Police Department news release.

The midnight to 3 a.m. timeframe is the deadliest time of day on Illinois roadways and also a time when many alcohol-related crashes are reported, according to data from the Illinois Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"The numbers do not lie and the costs of driving impaired or unbuckled are high both financially and emotionally when crashes occur," said James Wales, Director of Police and Public Safety, in a press release. "That's why we are stepping upour late-night enforcement efforts making sure impaired drivers are off the road and motorists are buckled up."

From Dec. 24 to Dec. 27 last year, four people died in crashes in the state and 775 were injured. From Dec. 31 to Jan. 3 last year, six people died in accidents and 477 people were injured, according to the news release.

The Lake in the Hills Police Department offers the following tips for staying safe this holiday season:

• Plan ahead
• Do not let friends and family drive impaired
• Designate a sober driver before going out and give that person your keys
• If you are impaired, call a taxi, use mass transit or call a sober friend or
• family member to get you home safely
• Promptly report impaired drivers you see on the roadways to law
• enforcement
• Wear your safety belt and make sure all passengers are safely buckled
• up. It is your best defense against an impaired driver.

The law enforcement crackdown is funded by federal traffic safety funds through IDOT's Division of Traffic Safety.