During "Operation Night Hawk," which will run today to Sept. 4, there will be at least four days where about a dozen troopers will be on local roads in Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan counties looking for drunken drivers, Lambert said.
There also will be underage drinking stings and a sobriety checkpoint along W.Va. 9 in Kearneysville, W.Va., from Sept. 1 at 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. the next day, Lambert said.
Also on that day, about 15 troopers will fan out across the three-county area in search of drunken drivers, Lambert said.
About 15 troopers at a time will search for drunken drivers today, Saturday and Sunday, Lambert said. From Aug. 21-31, state police hope to have four to six troopers in the three counties looking for drunken drivers, among other drunken driving reduction efforts, Lambert said.
There also will be extra drunken driving patrols on Labor Day, Lambert said.
Authorities in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Washington, D.C. will develop their own drunken driving crackdowns, Lambert said.
Maryland State Police 1st Sgt. Russell Newell said state police are participating in a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sponsored operation called "Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest" from Aug. 18 through Sept. 4.
That part of summer was targeted, Newell said, because of the increased traffic on roads, in part because students are returning to schools and colleges.
"There are a lot of travelers with a lot of things on their mind and we want to make sure they're traveling safely," he said.
Between 24,000 and 25,000 people die per year in drunken driving-related accidents, Newell said.
Many advertisements in conjunction with the operation will be directed at men between the ages of 21 and 34, he said.
"Unfortunately, that age group is involved in so many fatal crashes," Newell said.
Staff writer Pepper Ballard contributed to this story.
