CAPE POLICE GET NEW DWI MOBILE CHECKPOINT

A new Breath Alcohol Testing van, donated to the Cape Girardeau Police Department by the Missouri Division of Highway Safety, will be on patrol in the city this weekend as the department conducts sobriety checkpoints as a part of the department's increased effort to combat drunken driving in the city.

Chief Rick Hetzel announced Wednesday that his officers will be stopping cars at high accident locations where alcohol has been a significant factor and looking for drivers impaired by alcohol.

"We want to increase public awareness about the serious problem of drinking and driving and make the impaired driver aware that he or she stands an ever-increasing chance of being caught," Hetzel said.

Missouri law presently allows officers to immediately take the license of a driver who has a .10 or higher blood alcohol concentration. The process, known as Administrative Suspension, ensures that first offenders lose their license on the spot.

A proposal being promoted this week by legislators and Mothers Against Drunk Driving would lower Missouri's blood-alcohol level to .08 percent as the threshold for a driving while intoxicated arrest.

Drivers who refuse to take breath alcohol tests may also lose their licenses immediately.

A second proposal touted in the Missouri legislature this week, known as the "Zero Tolerance Bill," would close loopholes in a 1997 law that prevented teens from having their licenses pulled for refusing a breath test.

Drunken driving is estimated to be responsible for 32,000 traffic fatalities a year as well as countless injuries, the chief said.

"In Cape Girardeau, with public support, we intend to reduce these senseless tragedies," he said.