Steamboat Pilot & Today

The Steamboat Springs Police Department will have several extra patrol units on the streets for the busy Fourth of July weekend in hopes of stopping drunken or careless drivers.

Police Capt. Joel Rae said that beginning this afternoon and continuing until early Tuesday morning, patrols will be beefed up, and specifically designated DUI patrol cars will be looking solely for drunken drivers across Steamboat.

"This is going to be a busy weekend all over the state, but it should be a pretty typical Fourth of July in Steamboat," he said.

"We want people to be extra careful, to not drink and drive and to take advantage of a designated driver, the free buses or the taxis," he said.

This Fourth of July weekend also marks the 10th year that law enforcement agencies have been participating in The Heat Is On campaign, Tom Norton, Colorado Department of Trans-portation executive director said.

"If it's a holiday weekend, you can be sure The Heat Is On in Colorado," he said.

Rae said there will be extra patrols in busy and dangerous areas of the city where people are prone to speed, drive aggressively or get into accidents.

"We're going to be out in full force trying to keep the streets safe," he said.

The last vehicular homicide in the city was several years ago during a Fourth of July weekend, when a drunken driver rolled his vehicle on Steamboat Boulevard, killing the passenger, Rae said.

There will not be any DUI checkpoints this weekend, like there were for Memorial Day, Rae said.

Last year, 15 people died in Colorado during the Fourth of July weekend, and four of the deaths were alcohol related. Last year, 520 DUI arrests were made across the state during the weekend.

-- To Alexis DeLaCruz, call 871-4234 or e-mail adelacruz@steamboatpilot.com