Washington State Patrol reports busy Labor Day weekend

Troopers with the Washington State Patrol made 19 DUI arrests and contacted 280 traffic violators in Clark County between Aug. 31 and Sept. 3, as part of a regional effort to crack down on impaired drivers over the Labor Day holiday weekend, according to a WSP bulletin.

In the region including Clark, Cowlitz, Klickitat, Lewis and Skamania counties, troopers contacted more than 900 traffic violators and made 30 DUI arrests, the bulletin said.

For comparison, during the weekend before Labor Day weekend, the district made 18 DUI arrests and contacted 1034 violators. Locally, troopers made 11 DUI arrests and 364 violator contacts.

Lt. Jason Linn with the Washington State Patrol said numbers vary from weekend to weekend due to weather, resource allocation, traffic flow and collisions. If there are more collisions, the State Patrol has fewer people available to contact violators.

During events where people may be drinking, such as this weekend’s Vancouver Sausage Festival, more troopers will patrol the event area.

“We want to be proactive in preventing collisions,” Linn said. “As a result, we generally allocate our resources to accommodate the increased traffic flow, not only to reduce collisions, but to ensure stranded motorists are also assisted.”