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Show Friday is D-Day for national anti-drunk driving campaign Next week is National Drunk and Drugged Driving Awareness week. The kickoff activity will be what the Utah Highway Patrol calls D-Day: Friday, the 13th of December. The UHP says Friday will be an unlucky day for drunken drivers as an additional 50 troopers will be on the road, looking for drivers who tanked up before getting behind the wheel. Gov. Norm Bangerter has proclaimed pro-claimed Dec. 15-21 as Drunk and Drugged Driver-Awareness Week.:' which coincides wttfteMoffaT commemoration. To help observe the week, citizens are encouraged to do two things : 1. Put into use the motto, "Friends don't let friends drive." Intervene, or, better yet, always have a designated driver, someone not using us-ing alcohol or drugs, to drive home after the holiday party. 2. In or around traffic, report to authorities any apparently impaired driver who turns too wide, straddles the center line, appears drunk, has near-misses, weaves or shows any erratic driving patterns. : Some alcohol facts : t About 250,000 Americans have smmsmiim to alcohol-related traffic accidents. About half of all traffic fatalities are alcohol-related. About 650,000 people are injured each year in alcohol-related alcohol-related crashes. Only about half of the drinking drivers are their own victims. Eleven percent of victims in alchol-related alchol-related accidents are drinking pedestrians, while 37 percent are passengers, drivers of other vehicles and pedestrians. The proportion of alcohol-related crashes increases with the lateness of the hour. Between midnight and 4 a.m., about 80 percent of all fatally injured drivers had been drinking. ' - About , 8,000 people between the ttges o$bm24 were killed in alcohol-related crashes in 1984. Such crashes are the leading cause of death in this age group. |