State to target bars to curb New Year’s Eve drunken driving

BOSTON – State investigators are planning to visit bars in every major Massachusetts city on New Year’s Eve in an effort to curtail drunken driving.

Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said officials from the state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, which she oversees, will focus their enforcement efforts on bars identified as the last to sell alcohol to a convicted drunk driver, as well as locations recognized by local police as a source of disturbances.

The Democrat said the stepped-up enforcement establishes “a long-term deterrence for bar owners” to avoid serving too much alcohol.

The program is run along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Impaired Driving Crackdown, which runs from Thanksgiving Eve through New Year’s Eve.

In 2014, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted for 9,967 deaths nationwide, 31 per cent of all driving fatalities.