Arizona authorities made more than 500 DUI arrests for July 4 weekend

PHOENIX — More than 500 DUI arrests were made in Arizona in the days leading up to and including the Fourth of July, including 20 arrests of those under 21.

A report from the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said there were 16,079 total traffic stops between Thursday, June 29 and Tuesday, July 4. Of those, 539 resulted in a DUI arrest.

A whopping 148 of those arrests (27.5 percent) were for extreme DUI — defined as a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .15 or above.

Last year, between July 1 and July 4, there were 507 DUI arrests — almost as many arrests as this year, but in fewer days. In 2015, there were 486 total DUI arrests between July 2 and July 5.

Also notably, 125 of the 539 DUI arrests (23.2 percent) this year were drug arrests, well up from 93 last year (18.3 percent) and 63 (12.9 percent) the year before. Also up from last year’s Independence Day weekend was the number of aggravated DUI arrests, sitting at 84 compared to 49 in 2016.

This year’s traffic stops also resulted in 587 arrests not related to driving under the influence.

The enforcement was completed by 3,237 participating officers and deputies across the state.

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