North Carolina "Booze it and Lose It" Results in 900 Statewide Arrests

The office of North Carolina Governor Mike Easley announced that the state wide "Halloween Booze It and Lose It" campaign resulted in the arrest of 900 individuals for driving while under the influence of alcohol. Additionally there were some 24,932 traffic and criminal citations which were also issued statewide for a variety of other motor vehicle related offenses. The statewide campaign was operated from October 26 through October 31 and is part of a continuing effort between the North Carolina Governors Office, the North Carolina law enforcement and the Office of the North Carolina District Attorney.

Governor Easley stated that, "ghosts and goblins were not the only scary people out on Halloween, unfortunately so were impaired drivers." He went on to comment that, "I thank the law enforcement officers from across our state for their hard work to get impaired drivers off the road to make our highways safer." State wide there were nearly 2,400 sobriety check points and designated patrols established during the week long Highway Safety Program which was primarily aimed at curbing impaired driving during Halloween.

As thousands of children and other Halloween participants take to the streets to trick or treat and take part in other activities, this holiday has been selected as a priority effort state wide. Particularly effective in the counties of Mecklenburg, Wake, and Durham counties, the state wide effort was hailed as a huge success and will probably be considered for next year.

In addition to those found to be driving under the influence, another 2,154 motorists were issued citations for safety belt violations and another 339 child passenger safety violations were also issued. Other numbers from the week long Halloween activity include; 7,514 speeding citations, 527 charges for a variety of drug related activities, 190 fugitives from justice were apprehended, and 44 stolen vehicles were recovered.