Nearly 1,800 Arrested for DWI in North Carolina Fourth of July Crackdown

State transportation officials say almost 1,800 motorists were arrested on North Carolina highways for driving while impaired during an Independence Day operation.

The N.C. Department of Transportation and the Governor’s Highway Safety Program announced that “Operation Firecracker” resulted in 1,737 arrests for the holiday period from June 28 through July 7.

There are seven DWI task forces across North Carolina. Their purpose is to get drunk drivers off the roads. Those seven task forces were responsible for 455 of the DWI arrests.

Guilford County is one of the newest task forces. A statement from NCDOT said that during the 2013 “Operation Firecracker” campaign, the county had 146 DWI arrests, compared to 50 in 2012.