Drunken driving arrests were up 10% over last year for the Labor Day holiday weekend in Minnesota.
Minnesota Officers arrested drunk drivers for speeding, after rollovers, and even after a car went into a house.
Mike Hanson is director of Traffic Safety with the Department of Public Safety and says those drivers that get caught are the lucky ones. “The 1,265 drivers that made that fateful decision to get behind the wheel when they shouldn't, they were the lucky ones,” Hanson told WCCO’s Rusty Ray. “They wound up in the back seat of a squad car and that is lives saved."
Hanson said cops know what to look for.
"Whether that's weaving, driving well above or well below the speed limit, making an improper turn, failing to yield,” Hanson says.
Hanson explains that worsening driving habits, plus more enforcement, leads to more arrests.
“I think some of the bad habits that may have been developed during the pandemic are carrying over now that we're starting to come out of it,” Hanson told WCCO.
For example, police in Annandale arrested someone who was so drunk they passed out while backing out of a parking space. Police in Big Lake arrested a driver for DWI after they say he/she ran into a house.
Nearly three hundred law enforcement agencies helped make more arrests in the period including Labor Day this year compared to last.
According to the Department of Public Safety, officers statewide made more than 1,200 arrests over the three weeks ending September 5, which is a 10% increase from last year.
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