Holiday Weekend DWI Crackdown Yields No Arrests In Garden City

GARDEN CITY, NY — The results are in for Garden City's DWI crackdown during the Labor Day weekend. Garden City police joined the nationwide STOP DWI initiative, aimed at reducing drunken and impaired driving.

In Garden City, there were no arrests, a village spokesperson said.

The annual campaign launched by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) targets 18 to 34-year-old men for drug-impaired driving, 21 to 34-year-old men for alcohol-impaired driving and 35 to 54-year-old men for alcohol-impaired motorcycle riding, the NHTSA said.

“During this initiative, the Department deployed additional patrols to monitor Village roadways for DWI and Impaired Driving violations in an effort to remove dangerous drivers from Village roadways. During the detail, there were no impaired driving arrests for impaired driving. However, six traffic tickets were issued for various moving traffic violations," Police Commissioner Kenneth Jackson said.

The project targets intoxicated and drugged drivers. According to the NHTSA, 490 people died in vehicle crashes during the 2023 Labor Day Weekend, and 36 percent of the crashes involved a drunk driver.

The NHTSA said evening hours are the deadliest, when the rate of alcohol-impaired fatal crashes is three times higher at night than during the day.

In 2023, 12,429 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths, the NHTSA said. Fifty-six percent of drivers in serious injury and fatal crashes tested positive for at least one drug, NHTSA said, based on studied trauma centers from Oct.-Dec. 2020.

“Impaired driving is totally preventable, yet more than 12,000 people are killed each year because someone selfishly decides to drive under the influence. Law enforcement officers nationwide are joining us to help stop impaired drivers and save lives," said NHTSA Chief Counsel Peter Simshauser.

New York’s STOP-DWI program is the nation’s first and, to date, only self-sustaining impaired driving program.

The holiday weekend initiative was funded by the Nassau County Traffic Safety Board, STOP-DWI NY and the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee.