DATE: March 25, 2015
SUBJECT: March 27, 2015 Sobriety Checkpoint
RELEASE NUMBER: 2015-NR-020
CONTACT: Lt. Noah Robinson
AUTHORITY: Sheriff Dave Wedding
The Evansville-Vanderburgh County Traffic Safety Partnership will conduct a sobriety checkpoint this Friday evening, March 27, 2015 from 11:30 pm until 3:00 am. Law enforcement officers from the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office, Evansville Police Department and Indiana State Police will join together to conduct this checkpoint.
The location for Friday’s checkpoint was chosen based on local traffic collision data. Analysis of data captured since the beginning of March indicated that several geographical areas within Vanderburgh County accounted for a disproportionately high number of reported hit and run crashes. The upcoming checkpoint will be located within one of those areas. Hit and run crashes are often the result of impaired drivers who try to avoid arrest by fleeing the scene.
Sheriff Dave Wedding stated, “This is the first sobriety checkpoint we have conducted since the fatal crash that occurred on Saturday, March 14, 2015. That crash claimed the life of 15-year-old F.J. Reitz High School student Logan Brown, who was a passenger in a vehicle struck by a suspected intoxicated motorist.” Sheriff Wedding added, “That same motorist had been involved in a hit and run crash near Hogue Road and Tekoppel Avenue just minutes before the fatal crash on University Parkway.” The crash on University Parkway killed one and critically injured three others.
The Evansville-Vanderburgh County Traffic Safety Partnership conducts sobriety checkpoints in an effort to detect and deter impaired drivers (thereby reducing the occurrence of alcohol and drug related traffic crashes).
Funding for local sobriety checkpoint operations is provided by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI) through a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
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