Officials: 300 DWIs over New Year's holiday
Minnesota State Highway Patrol officials say there were 300 arrests for driving while intoxicated on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. That's similar to previous years – the state averaged 295 DWIs during the last five years for the holiday, patrol officials said in a press release.
It has not officially been established that Minnesota had a fifth straight year with no DWI-related fatalities over the holiday. There was one fatality during the late afternoon on Dec. 31, north of Deer River, Minn., but investigators had not conclusively determined whether alcohol was a factor in the crash.
Patrol officials say 651 people in the state were killed in drunk driving crashes in the last five years, including 111 in 2011. Nearly 30,000 people are arrested for DWI each year in the state, officials say.
