UPDATE: Holiday Weekend Saw Thousands of Arrests, Two Fatalities

Lt. J. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police has some sobering statistics from the Thanksgiving weekend on our state’s roads.

State police stepped up their enforcement of drunken-driving violations, arrests of aggressive drivers, and tickets for seatbelt violations and inattentive driving.

Over the holiday weekend, troopers made 1,376 speeding arrests, and 417 seatbelt arrests.

They gave tickets for 2,745 other moving violations, including unsafe lane changes, following too closely, using cell phones while driving, and failing to signal, among others.

State police report 65 arrests charging driving while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.

They responded to 9,728 calls for service and investigated 389 accidents, 50 of which involved injuries. Two people died in crashes over the weekend. One was in Marlborough, at the intersection of Route 66 and Blackledge Drive, and the other was on Route 15 in East Hartford.

Last year over the same weekend, there were 2,255 speeding tickets, 151 seatbelt violations, 3,411 hazardous moving violations, 80 DUI charged, 391 accidents including 57 injuries, and one fatality.