Columbia Police cracking down on drunk drivers

Columbia Police are stepping up their efforts to crack down on drunk driving.

Officials said it’s in response to a high number of deadly crashes involving drunk driversso far this year.

So far in 2014, 6 people have been killed in 4 different crashes in Columbia.

Two of those crashes have been confirmed as alcohol-related.

Investigators are still waiting on toxicology results to find out if the other 2 crashes alsoinvolved alcohol.

Those statistics are compared to the entire year of 2013, when 6 people were killed in crashes in Columbia, three of those involving drunk driving.

In 2012, 5 people were killed in accidents in Columbia; two of those were alcohol-related.

Columbia Police will be increasing patrols through the rest of this month and into May, and conducting at least one DWI checkpoint in the city.

These efforts are in addition to an upcoming statewide DWI initiative taking place during the first two weeks in May.

Officials said in a news release drunk driving contributes to more than 30% of deadly wrecks in Missouri.