NSP ramping up drunk effort enforcement for Labor Day weekend

Posted By: Rachael Miner

rminer@klkntv.com

It’s one of the busiest travel holidays, but it’s also one of the biggest drunk driving weekends of the year.

The Nebraska State Patrol is ramping up their efforts to crackdown on drunk drivers over Labor Day Weekend.

"Go out and have fun and enjoy but once you get behind the wheel and then you’re a danger to the motoring public we can’t have that," said trooper Jeff Rutan. 

Trooper Rutan has been with the NSP for eleven years now and says taking drunk drivers off the road is just another part of the job.

Sunday morning I rode along with him to see what it’s like to be on the lookout for impaired drivers.

Rutan says a DUI normally starts as a simple traffic stop.

"State patrol, do you have your license, registration, proof of insurance. You contact the driver and if there’s been drinking involved you’ll smell it coming out of the vehicle, they may be real nervous, they may have bloodshot watery eyes, their speech can be slurred."

One of four field tests can be issued to check sobriety.

Troopers can perform a breathalyzer, check a persons eyes, have them walk in a line then turn around, or have them stand on one foot.

If the person fails, they’ll be placed under arrest.

Rutan says it’s not about trying to limit anyone’s fun.

"We’re just trying to make it safer for everybody."

It’s not only keeping roads safer, it’s also saving lives.

"We know that we took that impaired driver off the road so you could have saved somebody’s life there so that’s a good feeling."