North Carolina’s 2010 Operation Firecracker was successful…but is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

Don’t get us wrong—we love this program. The “Booze It & Lose It: Operation Firecracker” campaign set up sobriety checkpoints throughout North Carolina for the week leading up to the Fourth of July holiday. Officers look for drunk drivers (hence the “booze it” part of the title), but also any other vehicle or criminal infractions.

From June 28, 2010 to July 4, 2010, the state conducted more than 4,600 sobriety checkpoints and dedicated patrols. More than 49,000 criminal citations were issued, including 1,291 impaired drivers were taken off the road, 835 drug charges were issued, and 738 drivers were cited for child passenger safety violations. That’s a bittersweet success. The good news is that the streets were made that much safer…the bad news is that there were so many impaired and unsafe drivers to be caught.

“We received an outpouring of support from law enforcement from across the state during this effort,” said David Weinstein, director of the Governor’s Highway Safety Program. “Their dedication in removing impaired drivers from our roads is greatly appreciated.”

HensonFuerst would like to echo that sentiment, for ourselves, and on behalf of all our clients who have been injured or killed by impaired drivers. Thank you to all the diligent North Carolina law enforcement officers. They help clean up the streets every day, not only on holiday weekends.

To see how your county fared in specific citation categories, click here: Firecracker Totals.