Labor Day sees number of DWI citations increase
By From staff reports
Published in News on September 8, 2011 1:46 PM
The busy Labor Day weekend led to an increase in the issuance of driving-while-intoxicated citations, according to Wayne County State Highway Patrol 1st Sgt. G.L. Burton.
Burton said all of the districts took part in a statewide DWI blitz, which resulted in his troop issuing double or triple the amounts of impaired driving citations during the weekend.
He said the Highway Patrol gave out 24 DWIs over Labor Day at 38 checkpoints along with 51 speeding tickets and cited 16 drivers whose license had been revoked.
Goldsboro Police held 10 checkpoints throughout the city during the week, including Labor Day weekend, and issued eight total DWIs to impaired motorists. There were seven safety belt violations, four drug violations and 79 speeding tickets issued. Another 42 drivers were cited for driving while their license was revoked.
Maj. Michael West with GPD said there wasn't a noticeable increase in citations during the Labor Day weekend, and that the totals were pretty much average.
Maj. Dwayne Edwards, who supervises the Wayne County Sheriff's Office's patrol division, said deputies were stretched thin during the Labor Day holiday due to many shots fired reports -- reports he said were usually from dove hunters.
There were eight saturation patrols by Sheriff's Office personnel, and five citations were issued in total, but there were no checkpoints.