Drinking and driving arrests over the long St. Patrick’s Day weekend are approaching 500 and counting with a few straggling reports still out.
The arrest numbers, reported as part of a statewide “Heat Is On” program, are in line with previous holiday counts from earlier years.
In Denver, 76 DUI suspects were arrested over the beefed-up enforcement period that ran from 6 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Denver’s busiest day was Saturday, the day of the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, when 24 DUI suspects were arrested.
The program included saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints. So far, 477 arrests have been reported statewide.
The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office made 28 arrests over the long weekend. The the Colorado Springs Police Department made 34 arrests through Sunday; the department has not yet completed reporting numbers for the rest of the period.
At least one traffic death this year, in Colorado Springs, involving a motorcycle driver is being attributed to drinking and driving.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
