PIERRE, S.D.(Press Release) – A new year means another year of sobriety checkpoints held in South Dakota as a way to discourage people from drinking and then driving.

The monthly checkpoints are funded by the South Dakota Office of Highway Safety and conducted by the South Dakota Highway Patrol with the help of local law enforcement.

There are 15 sobriety checkpoints planned in different counties statewide during January. The counties are: Beadle, Brookings, Brown, Butte, Charles Mix, Codington, Davison, Jackson, Lawrence, Meade, Minnehaha, Pennington, Spink, Walworth and Yankton.

Officials remind drivers not to drink and drive regardless of whether there is a checkpoint planned in their county. People who have been drinking are urged to designate a sober driver or take an alternate form of commercial or public transportation.

Both the Office of Highway Safety and the Highway Patrol are agencies of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.