No fatal car accidents were reported over the New Year’s holiday weekend.
The Wyoming Highway Patrol reports 20 impaired driving arrests in Wyoming by their agency from December 31 through January 3. This is more than the 13 arrests reported last year.
This year, though, no accidents over the holiday weekend resulted in death. The same weekend last year resulted in three crashes with four fatalities. One of those crashes was alcohol related, and the other two were due to inclement weather and speed.
WHP Colonel Kebin Haller is crediting the lack of fatalities to “personal responsibility with motorists making good decisions before getting behind the wheel and the increase in law enforcement working late and extended hours providing an additional presence to identify those who chose not to.”
The public helped WHP by calling in 36 REDDI Reports of suspected drunk drivers.
Throughout the weekend, WHP investigated eight crashes involving injury during the four day weekend. Two of those crashes involved a possible impaired driver. In addition, 40 crashes involving property damage were investigated.
According to a release from WHP, Troopers were dispatched to over 189,500 events in 2015 and fielded even more phone calls.
The sixth event handled by WHP in 2016 was a DUI arrest in Sublette County.
WHP implemented a new drunk driving campaign over the holiday utilizing social media. According to a release, the campaign #DoNotGetHashtaggedByWHP posted 23 times through the holiday weekend reaching 424,205 people with 8,631 “likes”, 1,029 “shares” and received 376 comments on the WHP Facebook page alone. Posts ranged from good Samaritans saving lives, tips on how to get home safely, DUI arrests and one post that was shared from a grateful motorist when a Trooper changed their tire near Green River in frigid temperatures.
As two of the DUI arrests over the weekend told the arresting Trooper that they were the designated drivers of their group, Patrol is reminding motorists that buzzed driving is drunk driving.
Patrol is also reminding motorists that lack of seat belt use continues to be one of the highest contributing factors in highway deaths in Wyoming. There were 76 fatalities in 2015 that were not buckled up.