UHP plans New years DUI blitz

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – One year ago, 72 drivers got a sobering start to the New Year.

They were arrested for drunk driving in Utah and more than half of those were in Salt Lake County.

The Utah Highway Patrol will have extra troopers on the roads to make sure drivers keep the car between the two white lines.

“It's probably one of the busiest nights I've worked,” says Trooper Kade Martinez. “I never knew it would be so busy.”

Martinez has worked the DUI blitz before.

He says there will be hundreds of stops at various checkpoints during New Years Eve.

“We'll have a DUI bus and it has breathalyzers and so everything is right there and it makes it a whole lot easier to handle,” Martinez says. “And as people drive through we just talk to them to see if they're okay to drive. If we can smell and detect the odor of alcohol then we have them pull over.”

The New Car Dealers Association donates money to UHP to help fund overtime for troopers.

Both groups believe they are keeping roads much safer.

But Martinez seems frustrated that so many drunk drivers still don't get the message.

“It's so dangerous,” he says. “When people consume alcohol and they get to that .08 level the first thing to go is their judgment, their ability to think and to make wise decisions. And I think that's why it continues to happen.”