Roads may be dangerous today because of St. Pat's Day partying

If you're thinking about partying down for St. Patrick's Day and then heading down the road, think about this:

The Minnesota State Patrol recognizes the holiday is historically a dangerous drinking and driving party period. This year the holiday falls on a Saturday.

The last time that occurred (2007), 527 motorists were arrested for DWI and all three traffic deaths were alcohol-related.

In a typical two-day period in Minnesota, 170 motorists are arrested for DWI. During non-weekend years (2008-2010), St. Patrick’s Day yielded seven deaths with only one being alcohol-related and 606 people were arrested for impaired driving.

Considering this information, troopers, deputies and officers from around Minnesota will be working Towards Zero Deaths (TZD) Driving While Impaired shifts on Saturday, March 17, 2012 to be worked in conjunction with St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

State Patrol Sgt. Jesse Grabow says, “We would rather have drivers plan ahead not to drink and drive instead of having to make arrests or have needless tragedies occur.” Drivers are encouraged to support this project by planning ahead not to drink and drive and report impaired drivers.

DWI enforcement and education is a component of the state’s core traffic safety initiative, TZD. A primary vision of the TZD program is to create a safe driving culture in Minnesota in which motorists support a goal of zero road fatalities by practicing and promoting safe and smart driving behavior. TZD focuses on the application of four strategic areas to reduce crashes – education, enforcement, engineering and emergency trauma response.

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