Drunks were up but deaths were down this St. Patrick’s Day weekend, according to the Colorado State Patrol and 49 law-enforcement agencies.
Between 6 p.m. Friday and 2 a.m. Tuesday, 488 people were arrested on DUI charges, compared with 363 arrests during St. Pat’s weekend a year ago.
St. Patrick’s Day was Monday, and last year, the holiday fell on a Saturday.
In 2007, five people died of alcohol-related deaths, but this year was fatality free, according to the State Patrol.
Col. Mark Trostel, chief of the State Patrol, said of the drunken-driving arrests: “These individuals made a terrible decision to drink and drive, resulting in committing a crime that all law-enforcement agencies in this state take very seriously.”
More than 200 people are killed in Colorado each year because of drinking and driving, he said in the statement.
