The effort of law enforcement to focus on highway safety by curbing fatalities caused by impaired drivers has seen many arrests in central and northern Louisiana. State Police spokesperson Trooper Glenn Younger said in the three troop areas for Bossier City, Monroe, and Alexandria have netted 97 DWI arrests over the Christmas weekend.
“We had several dozen different narcotics and warrant arrests in addition to the DWIs, but for those three troops combined, we had a total of 97,” said Younger.
Younger said the goal is to have zero DWI fatalities, so anything that can be done to get closer to that goal is a good thing.
“We don’t hope for high numbers for DWI arrests. We hope for zero, but at the same time, if we get zero DWI arrests, then we should get zero DWI fatalities on our roadways,” said Younger.
Louisiana saw a total of 759 traffic fatalities from January 1 until December 27 in 2017. Younger said that number is at 655 for the same stretch of time in 2018.
“We are basically at a 14 percent decrease from 2017, so we are ecstatic about that, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do and a long way to go, but we are well on our way,” said Younger.
The extra DWI enforcement will continue into the New Years holiday.
