UPDATE FEB. 4: Las Vegas police say they arrested 23 drivers for impaired driving at Sunday night's checkpoint. Three drivers were also charged with felony child endangerment because they had children in their vehicles.
ORIGINAL STORY
A DUI checkpoint was catching impaired drivers in the northwest valley on Super Bowl Sunday.
Police arrested at least 16 suspected impaired drivers as of 11 p.m.
Las Vegas police was out in full force looking out for those behind the wheel who shouldn’t be.
“How much have you had to drink this evening?” asked one officer.
In a lot set up along a busy northwest valley road was a full field sobriety test area, even a van ready to move suspected DUI drivers to the Clark County jail.
In the first hour, three arrests including one woman who police say was not only driving under the influence, but had kids in the car.
No driver was getting by these officers even passing RTC buses had to hit the brakes.
“We don’t want any arrests is our ultimate goal but unfortunately that’s not the case," says Lt. Greg Munson.
Las Vegas police slapped the cuffs on 30 people at their Super Bowl DUI checkpoint last year, and are hoping to get more DUI drivers off the road this year.
“With the Super Bowl being a key consumption holiday and we see a spike in impaired driving, we wanted a presence a visible presence.”
These checkpoints are just one piece of the puzzle to bring an end to DUI driving valley wide, and crashes that have taken the lives of those too soon.
“One third of all of our fatals last year were DUI related, we’ve got to stop this, we’ve got to stop this trend," says Andrew Bennett, Nevada Office of Traffic Safety. "There is no excuse anymore, between Uber, Lyft, public transportation, a friend…there is no excuse."
