The final tally is in, and law enforcement statewide arrested 424 impaired drivers over the three-day St. Patrick's Day weekend, an increase of 28 percent over last year, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Office of Traffic Safety said.
The 424 arrests made between 6 p.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Monday compares with 331 made during the same time frame in 2017, when the holiday fell on a Friday.
St. Patrick's Day has long been one of the busiest for drunken driving arrests. With an average 4.2 drunken driving arrests every hour, the holiday ranks third, trailing only Labor Day and Independence Day, the Office of Traffic Safety said.
In comparison, police make about 285 DWI arrests on a typical weekend, the traffic safety office said.
It was unclear why arrests spiked this year, though the fact that St. Patrick's Day was on a Saturday may have played a role, said Lt. Robert Zak of the Minnesota State Patrol.
Source: Star Tribune