The Virginia Beach Police Department has plans to crack down on drunk driving over the next couple of weeks, including multiple patrols and checkpoints across the city.
It comes on the heels of two different fatal DUI crashes this past weekend.
The department's Traffic Safety Unit was already scheduled to do multiple saturation patrols this weekend as part of Mothers Against Drunk Driving's (MADD) Saturation Saturday campaign.
VBPD is also participating in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign, which runs through September 2.
"Our Traffic Safety Unit has already scheduled checkpoints as well for Labor Day weekend," a VBPD spokesperson said. "These patrols and checkpoints will take place throughout the city."
Despite the two fatal DUI crashes last weekend, 13NewsNow found that alcohol and drug-related crashes in Virginia Beach are trending down this year.
There have been 149 alcohol-related crashes through August 19, 2024, compared to 308 for all of 2023.
Drug-related crashes spiked to 45 in 2023, up from 30 in 2022. So far this year, there have been 14 drug-related crashes in Virginia Beach.
Just this week, a Virginia Beach judge sentenced a man to seven years in prison for hitting and killing a woman in Town Center while he was high on marijuana in 2022.
