Impaired driving — whether due to alcohol, drugs or both — is a year-round danger on the roadways. However, late summer and the Labor Day holiday period are among the deadliest times of the year for crashes and fatalities involving impaired drivers, the Michigan State Police advises.

Over the Labor Day holiday weekends from 2019 to 2023, there were a total of 44 driver fatalities in traffic crashes in Michigan. In those crashes, 43.2% of the drivers killed were alcohol- and/or drug-impaired, according to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, or UMTRI.

Throughout 2023, of the 1,021 fatal crashes that occurred in Michigan, 272 (26.6%) were alcohol-involved and 230 (22.5%) were drug-involved.

The “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign — which started Aug. 15 and

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