Early data show DUIs down for New Year's

Arrest totals are not final yet, but it looks as if there were fewer DUI arrests this New Year's Eve than in the past. At the very least, there was no substantial increase, police said.

"The important thing to remember is that we didn't have any DUI-related crashes for the Utah Highway Patrol," said Sgt. Todd Royce. "It has been a fairly quiet weekend, which is great."

Monday was a holiday for most of the people who keep records for law enforcement agencies in Utah, so complete data on DUI arrests were unavailable.

Royce said he could find only 10 DUI arrests for the Salt Lake Valley area covered by UHP on New Year's Eve and early New Year's Day.

"People going out and having a good time, that's one thing. Being an impaired driver, that's another thing. I think people are beginning to understand that a little bit, especially on holidays," Royce said. "From what I've seen, this weekend wasn't any different from an other weekend — and I'm hoping that wasn't just luck."

Salt Lake police reported 14 drunken driving arrests for New Year's Eve.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Paul Jaroscak said his agency so far reported only two DUIs for New Year's, but cautioned that, as with other police agencies, the numbers are incomplete and therefore could appear artificially low.

For one thing, a DUI might not be highest on the list of misdeeds someone is accused of doing, so it might not show up immediately in written reports.

Additionally, not every DUI accident is immediately classified as such. And not everyone who is stopped for driving under the influence is booked into jail. Sometimes people are given a citation and released if there is a sober person to take them home; juveniles often are taken home by parents and face court later; and some police agencies have their own holding cells.

If the numbers are lower this year, that's good news as far as law enforcement officials are concerned.

Art Brown, the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), believes that anti-drunken driving campaigns are working.

"Campaigns do help, news coverage helps. When you publicize the checkpoints, it does lower the number of deaths and injuries. People think twice about the risks they are taking," Brown said.

But Brown notes that laws, police, prosecutors, judges and legislators can only do so much.