St. Patrick's Day and the NCAA Tournament tend to go hand-in-hand with alcohol consumption. Not that there's anything wrong with that. As an adult, you certainly have the right to have a couple of drinks while celebrate Irish culture, or cheering for your team to win a national championship. What can be wrong with it is if after either of those things, you decide to get behind the wheel and drive yourself home. That's why the Indiana State Police will be ramping patrols for the next few weeks, keeping their eyes open drivers who are a danger to everyone on the road.

Operation Pull Over will see additional troopers on the roads around Evansville, especially during the late-night and overnight hours, thanks to a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration through the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. The goal, of course, is to get anyone who is impaired off the road before they hurt someone, while also encouraging you to have a plan for getting home after a night of partying.

Troopers will also be setting up a sobriety checkpoint somewhere in the area over the course of the three week period. When and where exactly that will take place has not been announced, which is not uncommon. It's hard to catch drunk or impaired drivers if they know what area to avoid.

Increased patrols or not, you should always have a plan to get home safely before you even leave the house for the night. That can be selecting a designated driver for the night, calling a taxi, or the most popular ideas these days, use a ride sharing service like Uber or Lyft.

Be safe!

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