SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico state police officers are planning a series of sobriety checkpoints around the state.
Officials say the checkpoints and advertising highlighting the state’s enforcement efforts are aimed at reducing alcohol-related fatalities.
Data from the state Transportation Department and the University of New Mexico shows 31 people died in alcohol-related crashes in the first four months of 2017. That’s less than the 55 alcohol-related deaths in the first quarter of 2016.
Officials say New Mexico’s alcohol-related death rate has consistently been nearly twice the national rate for the past two decades.
State police says they’ll also be checking driver’s licenses and reviewing vehicle registrations and insurance during June’s checkpoints.
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This story has been corrected to say that the number of deaths from alcohol-related crashes in the first four months of 2017 was 31, not 113, which was the number of total crash fatalities.
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