Drunk driving arrests down over 4th

The number of drunk driving arrests on the state’s highways was down this past 4th of July weekend. Jim Saunders, a special agent with the Iowa Department of Public Safety, says troopers made 44 drunk driving arrests this year, compared to 66 last year. Saunders says it’s hard to say why there was a decline. He says troopers hope awareness campaigns and the state’s new, tougher drunken driving law have prompted drivers to make the decision not to drive drunk. Saunders says 44 is still a large number of O-W-I citations for the holiday, but the fact it’s a decline from last year is promising. However, Saunders says last year’s Independence Day weekend was a day longer since 4th fell on a Thursday, and that affects the comparison, too. Saunders says troopers issued 901 tickets for “restraint” violations.Only six were for child seat violations. One-hundred-63 were just warnings, and the rest were tickets for seat belt violations. A little over two-thousand speeding tickets were issued by Iowa troopers this past weekend.