ST. PAUL -- Alcohol-related traffic deaths occur both on lonely two-lane rural roads and busy urban freeways, and law enforcement officers plan a December-long crackdown to reduce those fatalities.
"Impaired drivers are going to be seeing a lot of red flashing lights in their rearview mirrors," said Kathy Swanson, director of the Office of Traffic Safety within the Public Safety Department.
On Thursday, state officials announced the 13 deadliest counties in the state for alcohol-related wrecks. They include Twin Cities counties, but also some in rural Minnesota.
At the same time, Lt. Mark Peterson of the Minnesota State Patrol announced that state and local law enforcement agencies -- and not only in those counties with the deadliest records -- will increase patrols this month to catch drinkers who should not be driving. More than 400 law enforcement agencies will be involved, although Peterson would not say how many officers will be added.
The 13 counties with the most alcohol-related traffic fatalities will see increased patrols throughout 2007, Peterson added.
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The deadliest counties include all around the Twin Cities, but also mostly rural ones such as St. Louis and Itasca in northern Minnesota.
Three mostly rural counties -- Kandiyohi, Cass and Olmsted -- were on the top 13 list last year, but their alcohol-related fatalities dropped enough to miss the list this year. They were replaced by three other mostly rural counties -- Blue Earth, Crow Wing and Itasca.
More than half of the state's alcohol-related traffic deaths occur in the 13 counties, Swanson said.
Nearly 300 of the state's 1,079 alcohol-related traffic deaths from 2003 through 2005 occurred in the 13 counties. Alcohol-related accidents cost more than $356 million ion those counties, out of a more than $1 billion statewide.
Swanson said she does not know why the 13 counties are the deadliest, but busy roads in the cities and small, two-lane ones in rural areas contribute. Overall, two-thirds of the state's facilities occur on rural roads.
"There is not as much room for a mistake" on rural roads, Swanson said.
There is good traffic news, too. Minnesota is on track to have the lowest traffic death count since World War II, when about 530 died in wrecks each year.
Minnesota is about 50 below last year's death toll at this time. In 2005, 559 people died on the state's roads, with 197 dying in alcohol-related wrecks.
