UHP plans Friday DUI blitz

This Friday, Utah Highway Patrol officers will band together across the state to take on impaired drivers and keep them off the roads and out of danger.

On Friday, there will be at least 130 extra troopers on the state's highways and interstates looking to stop those driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The first blitz of this kind took place in April, Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Nigbur said, and led to more than 80 arrests. He said the UHP doesn't change its enforcement strategy, but concentrates its efforts.

"There's no need to change strategies," Nigbur said. "We're just going to throw out a lot of resources and a lot of manpower to let people know it's not acceptable."

The UHP uses the media to get the word out in the hopes that people will find alternatives to driving while impaired, he said. He believes publicity led to fewer arrests than expected in April.

"With the amount of enforcement and manpower we have … we should have had well over a hundred arrests, but we threw out the information in the media and people didn't drink, because they knew highway patrol was out there," he said.

Nigbur said he was told taxi companies in small towns such as Vernal were totally overwhelmed by the demand. He said stories like that show enforcement blitzes send a message and can keep drunken drivers off the road.

"We're not trying to surprise people like 'Ha! Here we are,' " Nigbur said. "We just want to show that we're serious and we want to be proactive."

UHP Superintendent Danny Fuhr initiated the DUI blitz program.

"DUI enforcement is a great area of emphasis for us and people wanted to help," Fuhr said. "It caught on like wildfire. Troopers are excited to come together from north, south, east and west to tackle this issue."

Fuhr said the events unite troopers and give them a larger goal.

"It keeps us focused on working with a purpose," he said. "Our ultimate goal is that we won't have people dying on the interstate. A lot of things that cause people to die are preventable … and those are the things we target so that the public gets home safe."

Fuhr said UHP plans to conduct blitzes every quarter in 2009. The next two are scheduled for Halloween and New Year's.

e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com