Local Police Participate in No Chair Empty in New York

One of the toughest things a teenager can go through is the loss of a friend or schoolmate. Sadly each year, there are high school students that lose their life senselessly due to a drinking and driving accident.

The town of Poughkeepsie Police Department announced today that they will be participating in the New York State Governor's Traffic Safety No Empty Chair campaign. This initiative is designed to bring awareness to teen driving safety. It is an education campaign to raise awareness of highway dangers including drinking and driving. The hope is that it leads to no chair being empty during prom or graduation this year due to the loss of a classmate.

Teenage Car Crash Statistics Shared by Poughkeepsie New York Police

In their Facebook post from earlier today (April 27, 2022) the Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department shared that they will be out this Friday (April 29th, 2022) looking for underage drinkers and people who are driving impaired. some sobering facts from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens. Many of those crashes involve an underage drinking driver. In 2018, 24% of young drivers who were killed in crashes had BACs of .01 g/dL or higher. (Town of Poughkeepsie Police Dept Via Facebook)

They also shared the fact that all states now have a minimum drinking age of 21 and that due to the raised drinking age NHTSA estimates that 31,959 lives have been saved from 1975 to 2017. In a 2018 study, they found that males between the ages of 21 - 24 were most likely to be in these types of crashes. The statistic actually states that it is 4 drunk male drivers to everyone drunk female driver. Find out more by logging onto the New York State Traffic Safety website.

Many of the Hudson Valley police Departments s have announced that they will be stepping up patrols this weekend as a part of this important campaign.

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