State Police Issue 33K Tickets During 'Drive Sober' Enforcement Campaign

New York state police today issued final statistics for their statewide 'Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over' enforcement operation that started Dec. 14 and ended on midnight Tuesday.

There were hundreds of accidents on state and local roads during that period, and 12 fatalities were reported.

Troopers were assigned to patrol both highways and secondary roads and target drunk driving along with other motor vehicle violations that could cause accidents.

Troopers manned sobriety checkpoints and were assigned to specific areas where higher then normal DUI accidents and arrests have taken place in the past.

They reported the following statistics from the operation:

• 33,000 total tickets issued, with more than more than 10,000 drivers ticketed for speed, not wearing seat belts or properly restraining children in vehicles.
• 538 people arrested for DWI
• 22 arrests for providing alcohol to minors and 12 penal law violations.
• 29 sobriety checkpoints and 10 saturation details manned by police.

In addition to the checkpoints and patrols, 12 underage drinking initiative details checked 14 bars and 120 retail establishments across the state.