New technology to track down drunk drivers is being used by authorities in Missouri.
At a news conference Friday, Missouri Department of Transportation and the Missouri Highway Patrol officials talked about the equipment, which is ready for use as the national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement campaign started Friday and runs through Labor Day.
The speed measurement is a feature of the Augmented Reality System (ARS) that enables patrolmen to determine the speed of a vehicle. Using the ARS marker feature, officers place a marker on the vehicle at the beginning and end of the speed measurement recording activity. ARS tracks both the time and distance a vehicle has traveled and displays a real-time average speed calculation on the screen.
The system cost $138,000 and was paid for through grant funding.
The first unit will be used by the Patrol during this campaign, placed on the Patrol's helicopter based in Jefferson City.
"It's a GPS-based system," said Patrol Spokesman Capt. John Hotz. "We can use it day or night, and on any straight highway, we can check the true speed of a vehicle."
Hotz said the evidence the system collects is admissible in court.
Statewide, law enforcement made 389 DWI arrests, 26 DUI drug arrests and 13 drug influence arrests during this campaign in August and September 2015. Many of those impaired drivers were under age 21. From 2013-15, there were 53 fatal crashes and 144 serious injury crashes involving impaired drivers under the age of 21 in Missouri. There were 64 people killed and 202 seriously injured in those crashes.
"Accidents can take away families faster than anything," said Lt. Gary Hill, of the Cole County Sheriff's Department. "We'll have a couple of deputies dedicated to looking for drunk drivers as well as incidents such as minors in possession parties. We won't just be sitting around."
For most of the nine years since she lost her mother and brother in a Nov. 4, 2007, drunk-driving accident, Johanna Henry frequently has spoken against drinking then driving.
She did so again Friday, urging anyone wanting to drink to have a plan to safely get to their destination.
Henry's family was driving home after church, headed west on Route C in Russellville, when Larry Welch's eastbound pickup hit the vehicle Henry was in head-on in the westbound lane.
Tobias Olsen and Jean Olsen, 45, were killed, while Henry, then 14, and her father, Eric Olsen, received serious injuries.
Welch pleaded guilty in 2008 to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of assault.
"He had a chance to change, and now he's in prison," she said.
Authorities said drunk or impaired driving is the third leading cause of crashes in the state.