PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Highway Patrol has announced sobriety checkpoints will be conducted in 16 different counties across South Dakota during the month of October. The enforcement action is designed to encourage sober driving throughout the state, including the Black Hills area and Rapid City.
The counties scheduled to see checkpoints in October are Brown, Brule, Clay, Codington, Davison, Day, Edmunds, Jones, Lake, Lawrence, Meade, Minnehaha, Pennington, Sanborn, Stanley, and Yankton. This list includes Pennington County, home to Rapid City, as well as Lawrence and Meade counties in the northern Black Hills region.
The monthly checkpoints are part of a statewide effort to discourage impaired driving. They are funded by the South Dakota Office of Highway Safety and conducted by the South Dakota Highway Patrol with the assistance of local law enforcement agencies.
Officials from both the Office of Highway Safety and the Highway Patrol-agencies within the South Dakota Department of Public Safety-remind drivers to always designate a sober driver or use an alternate form of transportation if they have been drinking, regardless of whether a checkpoint is scheduled in their county.