We wrote in our previous blog post about how Georgia police are cracking down on drunk driving during this holiday season. That effort continues and will be made easier by a $1.8 million grant to the Georgia State Patrol.

The Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety announced the H.E.A.T. (Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic) grant to the state patrol to allow the organization to carry on with its Nighthawks DUI Task Force.

The Nighthawks are a group of troopers with specialized drunk driving enforcement training.

"The H.E.A.T. grant helps support the Georgia State Patrol's enforcement efforts and is a reminder of their dedication in supporting the GOHS mission to protect Georgians from speeders and impaired drivers," the director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety said in a press statement.

The director noted that impaired drivers were involved in crashes that killed more than 300 people in the state in 2009.

Those numbers dropped 11 percent last year, however.

In Georgia, the penalties for DUI are harsh:

A first offense can mean jail time of up to a full year, as well as a fine of up to $1,000. In addition, the offender can lose their driver's license for up to a year and be required to complete at least 40 hours of community service. There's also a $210 license reinstatement fee and the very strong possibility of seeing auto insurance rates rise significantly.

For a second offense within five years of the first offense, the penalties get even more severe: a mandatory minimum of 48 hours in jail. Again, the offender faces up to a year in jail. The fine for a second offense is a minimum of $600; maximum is $1,000. Community service requirements also rise: a minimum of 30 days. There's also the license reinstatement fee, and likely rise in insurance rates, as well as a mandatory clinical evaluation of the offender.

The results of that evaluation might mean that the offender must complete a state-ordered substance abuse treatment program at their own expense.

Source: Examiner.com: "Ga. State Patrol receives $1.8M grant," Todd DeFeo, Dec. 27, 2011