With the holiday season comes excitement about family, fun, food and drinks. The drinks are where the danger comes in, usually. It sounds like this New Year's celebration in El Paso turned out to be a relatively safe one with regards to DWI accidents.

In fact, El Paso sources report that not one drunk driving accident occurred in the city during this year's celebrations. Hopefully, this means that 2012 will be a year filled with more responsible drivers and less lives lost to the recklessness that is drunk driving and driving under the influence of drugs.

Even though no traffic accidents related to alcohol took place in El Paso this New Year's, police reports indicate that no accidents doesn't mean that there were no drunk drivers on the roads. The following are arrest numbers for the holiday:

  • Before 10 p.m. on Saturday night, 12 people were charged with DWI. Seven were first-time offenders, two were second-time offenders, one was a third-time offender and two others were charged with having a blood alcohol level above 0.15. The legal limit is 0.08.
  • Between 10 p.m. on Saturday and 4 a.m. on Sunday, another five people were detained and at least three of them charged with DWI, two for having BAC levels above 0.15.

So as you can see based on the police reports, it might have been sheer luck that saved people from becoming victims of drunk driving accidents this holiday. Law enforcement stresses, however, that there's more to traffic safety than luck. DWI crackdowns during the holidays and El Paso's "No Refusal Blood Draw Operation" succeeded in protecting El Paso residents.

Source

Kvia.com: "Police: No Drunk Driving Fatalities Over Holiday Weekend," Jan. 2, 2012