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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Highway Patrol troopers plan to increase law enforcement during New Year's weekend.
Instead of being concentrated in one area, troopers will be scattered throughout the Wasatch Front, and into parts of northern and southern Utah. The goal of the New Year's Eve blitz is to make sure they stay true to their mission of Zero Fatalities and keep Utahns safe from impaired driving.
"We want to make sure that people have a good holiday, enjoy it, celebrate and have a good time but we want to make sure that everyone gets home safely," said Sgt. Cameron Roden with Utah Highway Patrol.
UHP recently released reports on the roads from Christmas weekend, Dec. 23-26. It states 714 people were cited for speeding over 100 mph, 172 crashes were reported and 39 DUIs were issued. In 2021, only 21 DUIs were reported. UHP hopes the trend of driving intoxicated during the holidays comes to an end.
"We have seen increased impaired driving and fatalities when it comes to impaired driving so it definitely catches our attention. We know around holidays, any special events, that tends to increase and so we always increase our enforcement and messaging during those times to discourage people from drinking and driving," Roden said.
He hopes Utahns continue to celebrate the holidays but are responsible while doing so.
"The more drinks you have the more impairment we see and we don't want that to wind up being a tragedy out there on the roadways that ends with fatality. When people get hurt, it affects so many people so if we can help make good choices, right up front, then we can avoid those tragedies."
