With AAA officials predicting 1.5 million Georgians will travel 50 miles or more between now and July 4, there is a heightened urgency from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Georgia State Patrol, public safety and AAA officials to help people avoid driving impaired or distracted.

Data for Georgia also shows that 90 people have been killed during the July 4 holiday travel period between 2016 and 2020. More than 30 % of those fatalities were alcohol-impaired crashes and 65 % involved drivers whose blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit in Georgia.

Georgia ranks No. 4 for the largest number of fatal accidents in the United States annually.

State troopers, sheriff’s deputies, and police officers in Georgia maintain a year-round zero-tolerance policy for drunk and drugged driving and arrest all drivers found to be over the legal Blood Alcohol Concentration Limit (BAC) in Georgia of .08.

“If you are stopped for driving under the influence, do not ask for a warning because this is the only warning we will give,” said Allen Poole, Director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. “State troopers and local law enforcement officers want those who have been drinking to ride with a sober driver because if a Georgia law enforcement officer has to give a drunk driver a ride, it will be to jail in the back seat of a patrol car.”