NEWBURGH, IN (WFIE) -
Police say a wrong way driver caused a head-on crash Monday morning on the Lloyd Expressway.
It happened around 5:40 a.m. near I-164. Police say 47-year-old Lazara Correa was driving under the influence, and driving in the wrong lanes when he hit a car head-on. The other driver, a young woman, was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Law enforcement say extra patrols and sobriety checkpoints around Labor Day are necessary to try and keep these kind of accidents from happening.
Indiana State Police were here last night conducting a sobriety checkpoint outside of Castle High School, along 261 and Vann Road. It's the second of three they're doing over this Labor Day weekend and they'll be out again Monday night, somewhere in Warrick County to try to catch drunk drivers in the act.
"We have people out there looking, so we're doing our job," said ISP Sergeant Tom Weber.
Weber looks over data showing where in our region, DUI arrests and alcohol related crashes happen most before manning another sobriety checkpoint Monday night.
"If we have to, we'll take people to jail and that's part of our job also," Weber said. "We'd much rather take a drunk to jail than to notify somebody that a family member is dead."
So far this Labor Day weekend, Sergeant Weber says the ISP hasn't made any drunk driving arrests. Not because troopers aren't out, but because drivers they've come across have been obeying the law.
"They're a highly scrutinized event. We can't just pick them anywhere. We pick a safe location that has a reason to have it there," Weber said about checkpoint locations.
Monday morning, Evansville Police say a suspected drunk driver going the wrong way on the Lloyd caused a crash. Exactly what the ISP is trying to prevent.
"We'll still be looking and we'll still keep that in mind of working that DUI investigation instead of that death investigation," Weber said.
If you do come across one of these sobriety checkpoints, if you're not impaired, you should only expect a delay of about 2 to 3 minutes.
Troopers are urging anyone out on the roads, if you see anybody you think could be a drunk driver, to call 911.
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