The Colorado State Patrol says it will conduct saturation patrols on Friday, Feb. 16, through to the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 18.
The operation is focused on impaired driving throughout Weld County.
In 2023, Colorado State Troopers investigated 119 crashes involving impaired drivers in Weld County, making it one of the top counties for impaired-caused crashes in the state, the State Patrol said in a news release.
Looking at all crashes investigated by troopers for Weld County last year, 294 were injury or fatality crashes. The top four causal factors for the crashes were impaired driving, lane violations (weaving and unsafe lane changes), distracted driving, and disregarding a stop sign.
The deadliest times were Thursday, Friday and Saturday late afternoon through Sunday morning, according to police.
The State Patrol says the upcoming three-day, high-visibility operation intends to "raise awareness and gain voluntary compliance from the motoring public to find designated drivers or abstain from drinking an alcoholic beverage, smoking or ingesting cannabis products, and then driving".
Troopers will also be increasing enforcement on excessive speed and lane violations and lowering their overall tolerance with motorists driving "over the limit."
Participating agencies will be the Colorado State Patrol's Statewide DUI Team and Colorado State Patrol Troop 3A.
Police say if you encounter a suspected impaired driver, the driver should be avoided by getting out of the way.
Contact the Colorado State Patrol after you pull over by calling *CSP (*277), 719-544-2424 or 303-239-4501.
Be prepared to provide the following information: vehicle description, license plate number, location and direction of travel, driver description, and the driving behavior being demonstrated. All emergency calls can be made to 911.
