MN Thanksgiving DWIs Top Last Year’s Number
Despite passing the 20,000 DWI mark in October, Minnesotans showed no sign of sobering up as law enforcement made more DWI busts this Thanksgiving than last year.
Bring Me the News reports that, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), 141 DWIs were reported between midnight Thanksgiving and 6:00am Friday with a total of 191 reported over the "Thanksgiving Holiday" before 9:00 Friday morning.
BMTN compares that number to another tweeted by MN DPS about the same time last year that said 137 people had been arrested for DWIs.
Despite the increase in Thanksgiving DWIs, the total number of annual DWI arrests has dropped drastically in the last 10 years. In 2017, law enforcement made 24,862 DWI arrests compared to 35,864 made in 2008.
Thanksgiving may be past now, but the holiday season is still very much underway. The DPS also reports the average number of DWI arrests made hourly per holiday with Christmas netting 2.5 and New Years 3.3. The leading holiday is Halloween with an average of 4.0 DWI arrests made per hour.