State Troopers To Step Up Patrols, Have Sobriety Checkpoints On New Year's Eve

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is asking people to simply play it safe on New Year's Eve. If people feel even slightly intoxicated, troopers suggest not getting behind the wheel.

Last year, there were nearly 150 crashes on New Year's Eve. Two of those crashes resulted in the deaths of two people.

Out of those 150 crashes, more than 18 percent of them involved an impaired driver.

This year, OHP is partnering with law enforcement across the state for several sobriety checkpoints.

There will be no specific checkpoints in Oklahoma and Cleveland counties. However, patrols will be increased.

Checkpoints will be established however in Tulsa and Muskogee that will last beyond midnight.

Custer County and the Clinton Police Department will also be doing a saturation patrol with OHP that will last overnight.

"We are going to be working hard around areas of concern, areas that we have had problems within the past. Really try to focus our efforts in those areas and that number to zero," OHP Lt. Mark Southall said.

OHP wants people to remember that it is not just alcohol that people need to watch out for on New Year's. It’s drugs, as well.

Troopers said both fatalities last year on New Year's Eve were drug related.