DUI arrests go up in Arizona over Labor Day weekend
Sep 6, 2017, 9:06 AM | Updated: 11:17 am
(AP File Photo)
(AP File Photo)
PHOENIX — Drunk-driving arrests in Arizona went up this past Labor Day weekend over last year, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said Tuesday.
The office said 490 arrests were made in the state between Sept. 1-4, the majority of which were first-time offenses, but there were over four dozen aggravated DUIs among the nearly 17,000 traffic stops.
Besides DUIs, more than 2,900 speeding citations were issued, 17 of them for reckless driving.
Of the total arrests, 114 were extreme. That means the driver’s blood-alcohol content was .15 percent or more. The standard level for a DUI is 0.08 percent. Officers took 20 people under the age of 21 into custody.
While the overall number of arrests was less than drinking-and-driving related arrests made over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, when 539 were handcuffed and charged, it was a jump from Labor Day weekends.
Two years ago, arrests during the long late-summer holiday weekend had dropped by almost 20 percent.
Nearly 100 law enforcement agencies had established impaired-driving checkpoints up, down and across the state for weekend traffic. The statewide DUI task force is a road staple for big holidays.
The arm of the law also has help from the Arizona Department of Transportation, which reduced speed limits on a stretch of Interstate 17 north of Phoenix and along Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson.
The road agency also made sure not to schedule any highway construction for the weekend.
