Police on Alert for Drunk Drivers Leading Up to St. Patrick's Day

PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. -- We're still two days away from St. Patrick's Day but law enforcement has already caught some partiers who were having too much fun.

Over the past 3 days, Port Wentworth Police have made at least 56 arrests, including 24 impaired drivers and 4 drug violations. They have also given out more than 230 tickets.

Police said Monday they had already seen a lot more traffic compared to last year, only 3 days into the 5-day enforcement effort.

Surprised drivers in Port Wentworth pulled up to a police checkpoint at Magellan Way and Cook Street near the intersection of Highway 21 and Highway 30 just one of many random checks police are conducting through St. Patrick's Day.

"We started doing what we call saturation patrols, areas where we were getting complaints of just bad driving habits. We're starting to attack areas we're getting complaints where people are just driving in reckless disregard for public safety," said Capt. Matt Libby with Port Wentworth Police.

Police said their number one concern is drinking and driving. Around 6:15 p.m., officers pulled a beer bottle from one vehicle and arrested its driver for DUI.

"We're coming out in the middle of the day time hoping that those who are traveling home during their evening commute in rush hour traffic are going to see, 'Hey there's a lot of police officers out there maybe we don't need to drink and drive.' It just doesn't appear that people are heeding our warning, at least not the number we would like," said Libby.

Several drivers trying to avoid the checkpoint were chased down.

Police said these patrols are how they hope to prevent any fatalities this St. Patrick's Day.

"They're putting my family and yours at risk when they're driving and doing stuff like that. We're not going to tolerate it, and that's why we're here," said Libby.

This is the third year Port Wentworth Police have been stepping up patrols leading up to St. Patrick's Day, and they expect to top the 83 arrests they made in 2009.