During last year’s Christmas and New Year’s Eve holiday season, the Iowa Department of Transportation reports five motorists were killed in our state and two of those deaths were alcohol related. Guthrie County Sheriff Marty Arganbright urges residents to have a sober designated driver and warns that his deputies will be actively looking for impaired drivers this holiday season. “Our department will be out looking for impaired drivers, as we do every holiday season, and throughout the entire year, really. But, the holidays are a time that we especially look for impaired drivers.”

The Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau reports that a first-offense OWI is punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of $1,250.