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Tim Nelson

Police step up DWI enforcement through Labor Day

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Hundreds of law enforcement agencies will be cracking down on drunk driving on Minnesota roads through the next three weeks.

Donna Berger is the director of the state's Office of Traffic Safety.

"The Labor Day holiday is the second deadliest major holiday," Berger said.

The Department of Public Safety says 24 people died on Minnesota roads over the Labor Day holidays in the last five years. That's just one fewer than the Fourth of July holidays over the same period, since 2010.

Drunk driving deaths have declined over those five years, but authorities say impaired driving is a continuing problem, with an average of more than 70 DWI arrests a day in 2014.

"Federal funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will be paying overtime for officers, deputies and troopers," Berger said. "And their main focus will be getting drunk drivers off the road. There's no such thing as being OK to drive. You're either sober or you're not."