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Halloween DWI offenders unmasked
Published Monday, November 2, 2009
The Albert Lea Police Department and Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office enhanced Halloween enforcement crackdown from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 resulted in eight DWI arrests. During the same holiday weekend in 2008, one motorist was arrested for DWI in Albert Lea.
“DWI enforcement is so important to keeping roads safe, but there is also a huge responsibility of motorists not to take the risk of driving impaired,” said Lt. J.D. Carlson. “The best advice is to always plan ahead for a safe ride so you don’t find yourself in a situation where you get behind the wheel after drinking.”
Halloween has become one of the biggest party nights of the year. During Minnesota Halloween party weekends 2006-2008, seven of the 15 traffic deaths were alcohol-related. Another 40 people were seriously injured in crashes; 15 were alcohol-related. During this period, 1,487 motorists were arrested for DWI.
In 2006-2008 in Freeborn County, there were four alcohol-related deaths and six alcohol-related injuries, costing the county $4,943,000. Last year, 169 impaired drivers were arrested for DWI in the county. In Minnesota during this same period, alcohol-related crashes resulted in 519 deaths and 1,159 serious injuries , and 116,515 motorists were arrested for DWI.
The enforcement effort is a component of the state’s Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) initiative. TZD is the state’s cornerstone traffic safety program that employs a multidisciplinary approach to address traffic safety issues through enhanced enforcement, education efforts, improved engineering and efficient emergency trauma response. Local law enforcement agencies will participate in additional enforcement and education campaigns during 2009-2010 to target seat belt use, speeding and impaired driving.
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Comments
Posted by scurvydog (anonymous) on November 2, 2009 at 9:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Unmasked? Would they have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling teenagers?
(Not making fun, just having some fun on a Monday morning.)
Posted by straitfan (anonymous) on November 2, 2009 at 11:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Everyone needs to know their limit and not drink if you're driving. But they should be especially careful and not drink and drive on nights when there are more than the average number drivers on the road, i.e. Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, New Year's Eve, and Halloween.
Posted by OldTrojan (anonymous) on November 2, 2009 at 11:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Good grief! Are we to thank law enforcement for doing the job that they are PAID to do with tax payer money, including my own paid taxes? We should expect there to be more DUI issues given a holiday since more people travel about then. This is not news.
Posted by Me2 (anonymous) on November 2, 2009 at 12:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Relax! It's like any job. There are numerous tasks one can do throughout the day and many are equally as important. In this case, they told us ahead of time that this was the priority on Halloween.
Posted by Me2 (anonymous) on November 2, 2009 at 12:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I guess this was our warning:
http://www.albertleatribune.com/news/200...
Posted by Wildbill (anonymous) on November 2, 2009 at 1:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I still find it interesting when they say don't drink and drive, yet every grill and bar and service club has a parking lot.
They also say don't go over the limit, when noone has access to a breath analyser in their car or establishment where they're serving.
Posted by smart (anonymous) on November 2, 2009 at 1:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wildbill, use common sense. It doesn't take too much of that to realize when you have had too much. There are taxis, overnight parking lots, and sober drivers that can get you home. Have a plan before you go out.
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