YOUR AD HERE »

Statewide DUI crackdown arrests 1,342 Labor Day weekend

Sky-Hi News staff

For the many arrested for driving impaired on Colorado roadways, the end-of-summer celebrations came to an abrupt finish.

The Colorado Department of Transportation’s “The Heat Is On” campaign, along with the Colorado State Patrol and law enforcement agencies across the state, reported that 1,342 people were arrested for Driving Under the Influence during the Labor Day enforcement period, from Aug. 16 to Sept. 3. There were nine alcohol-related fatalities preliminarily reported during this same period.

Municipal, sheriff and state patrollers were in on the enforcement in Grand County, but efforts to access data on how many arrests were made in Grand County over the holiday have been unsuccessful.



“The Labor Day crackdown is one of the annual enforcement periods where we see significant increases in impaired driving arrests,” says Darrell Lingk, director of the Office of Transportation Safety at CDOT.

This summer, The Heat Is On campaign adopted an unprecedented new tagline —“Drink & Don’t Drive” — and the phrase was seen throughout Colorado during the month of August.



“This year’s Labor Day crackdown had more than 100 law enforcement agencies protecting Coloradans from impaired drivers,” said Col. Scott Hernandez, chief of the Colorado State Patrol. “We will once again be ramping up our efforts surrounding the upcoming holiday season as we continue to stress the importance of avoiding impaired driving of any kind – alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs and illegal drugs.”

The Heat Is On campaign runs the entire year with 12 specific impaired driving enforcement periods targeting national holidays and large, public events. More details about these enforcement periods and arrest results can be found at HeatIsOnColorado.com.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

The Sky-Hi News strives to deliver powerful stories that spark emotion and focus on the place we live.

Over the past year, contributions from readers like you helped to fund some of our most important reporting, including coverage of the East Troublesome Fire.

If you value local journalism, consider making a contribution to our newsroom in support of the work we do.