DUI Arrests and Traffic Deaths Skyrocketing in New York State

New York is not only grappling with rising motor vehicle fatalities, the state is also among the top 10 states with the most DUI arrests.

The Office of the State Comptroller announced fatal car crashes skyrocketed by over 25% since 2019,which is the most the state has experienced in years.

Central New York had the third-lowest number of reported traffic fatalities in this time period, coming ahead of New York and the Mid-Hudson areas respectively. CNY averaged about 7 traffic fatalities per 100,000 residents.

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While heartening, the comptroller's office also looked at incidents that happened in the Mohawk Valley and found the are to have the third-highest number of traffic fatalities - behind the Capital Region and North Country. In 2022, the Mohawk Valley averaged about 9 traffic fatalities per 100,000 people.

Lewis and Hamilton were the counties with the highest fatality rates, respectively reporting 39 and 30 deaths per 100,000 residents.

Between 2019 and 2022, fatal motor vehicle crashes surged by 25.8 percent, with the majority of them being caused by speeding. In 2022 alone, speeding was the main factor in 402 fatalities.

The second-largest cause was those driving under the influence, which resulted in 371 fatalities in 2022. The state found deadly crashes involving those under the influence jumped by 43% since 2019 - which matches the previous high recorded in 2013.

State and local police have launched aggressive campaigns to catch drunk drivers before such incidents can occur, such as the Stop-DWI campaign. These initiatives are apparently working, with a new study finding New York among the top 10 states with the most DUI arrests.

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A report from High Rise Legal Funding used data from the FBI to compile its list and ranked New York in seventh place.

Data used included the number of reported DUI arrests in 2022, which was then measured against population to ensure a fair comparison and reveal the number of arrests per 100,000 people in each state.

In the Empire State, police made 21,583 DUI arrests that year, which averages to 470.44 incidents per 100,000 residents.

It's likely local and state police will again roll out an aggressive initiative to crack down on impaired driving during the long July 4 holiday weekend. This year alone, New York saw a surge of motorists on the road for every major holiday, with Memorial Day traffic being the second-worst in state history.

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AAA warns traffic this weekend will set a new record high, as an estimated 71 million Americans are expected to travel during the fourth.

Below are the times you should and should not travel during the holiday weekend.