NC's 'Booze It and Lose It' campaign gets revamp to fight drunk driving

The St. Patrick's Day “Booze it and Lose It” campaign is underway.

The holiday, along with warmer weather, brings many people out to celebrate. With that, drinking and driving can become an issue.

The annual campaign by North Carolina Department of Transportation is getting some new modern touches.

The Triangle has seen several people get killed by drunk drivers over the past few years. It includes Duke employee Daniel Watt, Knightdale police officer Ryan Hayworth, 911 operator and mother Netanya Richardson, her 3-year-old son Andre Dunn and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student Elijah Hawkins-Maynor.

Since the state's 'Booze It and Lose It' campaign started, more than 9,000 people have lost their lives in alcohol-related crashes. The program has been around since 1994. In western North Carolina, state leaders are modernizing the campaign.

“We recognize that this is a problem we can’t enforce our way out of,” said Mark Ezzell, the director of North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program.

Ezzell said the campaign recently tried using continuous alcohol monitoring (CAM) ankle bracelets after arrests on repeat offenders in seven western counties in the state.

"Any time someone uses alcohol above a very low percentage, then the CAM bracelet provider is notified, who then notifies probation and parole,” Ezzell said.

Of the 50 people who had a CAM bracelet, there were no alcohol related crashes, and only one person had an alcohol violation.

Ezzell said they've added new training for law enforcement, and are emphasizing treatment options. They're also looking at ways to take the CAM bracelets statewide.

People who are caught driving while impaired face jail time, loss of license and thousands of dollars in fines. That's in addition to the human cost of risking the lives of everyone else on the road.