During the holiday season, the Minnesota State Patrol says more than 1,400 people have been arrested from its holiday DWI enforcement. 

As people ring in the new year, troopers hope people planned for more than just the party, as that work will continue into the early hours of 2025.

“Plan ahead, be safe, arrange for a sober ride or rideshare [like] Uber, taxi, anything like that,” Lt. Mike Lee said. 

State Patrol also reports that alcohol was a factor in nearly a quarter of all fatal crashes in 2024 and that there were more than 15% more deadly crashes this year than last. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, there had been 463 traffic fatalities in Minnesota in 2024. Last year, at that time, there were 402. 

“These are 61 more people, grandparents, parents, kids, coaches, teachers, you name it. I mean, this is incredibly impactful to us, and this is not the trend, the direction that we want to go,” Lt. Lee said. 

Another troubling trend for the agency is distracted driving — as state data shows, as of early December, there had been more than 5.5% more warnings and tickets given out for distracted driving compared to 2023. 

As people ring in the new year, Lt. Lee wants everyone to make the right choices to help them save lives. 

“These are incidents that affect people and for a long time, so we want people to be responsible and try and avoid these,” Lt. Lee added.