Sheriff's Office braces for drunken drivers

As Labor Day approaches, so does the chance of death involving an automobile.

"Labor Day weekend is one of the (deadliest) holiday weekends nationally," according to the Carson City Sheriff's Office.

The office doesn't want to crash the party, but it does want to prevent crashes and will be saturating Carson City with patrols looking for impaired drivers.

"Starting Aug. 30 through Sept. 5, the Sheriff's Office will be patrolling city wide in an effort to identify, stop, and remove drunk and impaired drivers," Sgt. Darrin Sloan said.

Suspected impaired drivers can be reported to non-emergency Carson City dispatch at 775-887-2008.

For the highways and the freeway, the Nevada Highway Patrol's dispatch number is 775-687-0400.

On Sunday, Sept. 2, a checkpoint will be set up from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. to check drivers for impairment, license, insurance, seat belts and properly installed child seats.

The checkpoint will be funded through a Joining Forces grant from the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety, according to the Sheriff's Office and will be conducted with Nevada Highway Patrol, as well as the Lyon County Sheriff's Office.

NHP also will be more visible in the Saliman Road-Highway 50 interchange area looking for inattentive drivers, people talking on cell phones and those not wearing seat belts.