Dover – Hopefully Halloween weekend became safer, if not less frightening, for many motorists after Delaware law enforcement officers arrested 39 individuals for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) of alcohol and/or drugs last weekend. The Office of Highway Safety scheduled increased DUI enforcement activities for the Halloween weekend as 58% of all highway fatalities nationwide on Halloween night are alcohol-related.
The stepped up enforcement also wrapped up month four of OHS’s ongoing 2009 Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign, bringing the total number of DUI arrests for the initiative to 333. Agencies conducting checkpoints over the October 30th weekend included the New Castle County DUI Task Force (Wilmington), as well as the Smyrna and Harrington Police Departments. Seaford Police also conducted DUI saturation patrols over the weekend.
In addition to the 39 DUI arrests, officers cited 11 minors for underage drinking violations, apprehended 9 wanted individuals, made 11 drug arrests, 11 felony arrests, seized two weapons, issued 21 seat belt citations, 6 child restraint citations, and 122 citations for various other traffic violations.
Four more sobriety checkpoints are scheduled to occur the weekend of November 6th & 7th. The checkpoints are scheduled for:
Friday Nov. 6th – Newport (NcCo DUI Task Force)
Milford (Milford PD)
Rehoboth Beach (Rehoboth Beach PD)
Saturday Nov. 7th – North Wilmington (DSP Troop 1)
Checkpoint Strikeforce is a regional sobriety checkpoint campaign aimed at arresting DUI offenders and deterring others from drinking and driving.
