Avoid drunk drivers

TAMPA - On April 13th in North Tampa during rush hour, a driver barreled through an intersection, rear-ending one car and colliding head on with another. Two women were killed.

Tampa Police say the driver who caused it was drunk. He's now charged with DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide, but FOX 13 learned most fatal DUI crashes in Hillsborough County don't happen at four in the afternoon on a Monday. They’re more likely to take place at four in the morning.

“I know that usually our peak times for DUI arrests are between two and four o'clock in the morning which is also the time that our bars start closing,” Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Sitton told investigative reporter Doug Smith.

Hillsborough County consistently cites more people for driving under the influence than any other county in the state, averaging nearly 6,000 DUI arrests a year. The sheriff's office tracks the statistics carefully.

“We know from looking at our studies when our crashes are, what day and week they are and then when our arrests are,” Deputy Sitton said. “We want to those to line up where we're deploying our resources. We want to make sure we're doing it at the right time.”

FOX 13 took a closer look at the information Hillsborough County gathers. It might just help our viewers avoid the times and places in this county where they’re most likely to run across or even run into a drunk driver.

The most recent statistics show the most dangerous days of the week are Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the worst time from Saturday at midnight until Sunday at around three in the morning after the bars close.

Here are the DUI hot spots in Hillsborough County:

1. Dale Mabry Highway in Carrollwood between Waters and Bearss.
2. Adamo Drive just off I-75 between Falkenberg Road and 301.
3. In Brandon, near Bloomingdale, Bell Shoals and Lumsden.
4. The intersection of Martin Luther King Junior and U.S. 301 just south of I-4.
5. The intersection of Fletcher and Nebraska just east of I-275.
6. In Westchase, Countryway Blvd and Linebaugh Avenue.

The top DUI hot spot in the City of Tampa is in Hyde Park near South Howard Avenue South of Kennedy Boulevard. In New Tampa, the top DUI hot spot is at the intersection of Amberley Drive and Bruce B. Downs.

All of the Bay Area bridges are also DUI hot spots. Last call ends at two in the morning in Pinellas and some drunk drivers race across the bridge to Hillsborough where last call is at three in the morning.

So if you find yourself on the road in the early morning hours, this information may help keep you safe and perhaps even steer clear of a drunk driver.