LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas State Police made 131 arrests on charges of driving while intoxicated over the long Labor Day weekend, a decrease of more than 25 percent from the same holiday weekend in 2007, agency statistics show.
State police also made 10 arrests - twice the number from 2007 - for driving under the influence, a charge levied against people under the drinking age of 21 who show a blood-alcohol concentration of between .02 percent and .08 percent. Driving while intoxicated means a blood-alcohol concentration of greater than .08 percent.
In addition, state police also recorded 10 alcohol-related crashes, down from 16 a year earlier.
State police spokesman Bill Sadler said the decrease in driving-while-intoxicated arrests could be attributed to some troopers based in Sebastian County and in south Arkansas counties helping evacuees flee Hurricane Gustav instead of running drunken-driving checkpoints.
Nonetheless, he said, "From an enforcement perspective, there's no particular reason. Troopers certainly exercised their duties as they found probable cause to execute traffic stops where the drivers exhibited evidence of being drunk."
While 2008 statistics in othercategories varied by location - more speeding citations in moreheavily traveled areas, for example - driving-while-intoxicated arrests showed little variation across the state police's 12 troops sprinkled throughout Arkansas.
Troop I and Troop K, based in Harrison and Hot Springs, respectively, netted the most such suspects with 15 each. Three other troops - L in Springdale, D in Forrest City and A in Little Rock - made 14 driving-while-intoxicated arrests.
Troop B, based in Newport, and Troop G, based in Hope, tied for the fewest DWI arrests with six each.
Penalties for being convicted of driving under the influence vary under Arkansas law from license suspension to jail time.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 09/04/2008