Police arrest 16 motorists for DUI week of Oct. 28-Nov. 3 on Big Island roads

Arrests of motorists driving under the influence of an intoxicant on Big Island roads have increased more than 1% so far this year.

Hawai‘i Island police had had busted a total of 814 motorists for DUI in 2024 as of Nov. 3, including 16 between Oct. 28 and last Sunday, 9 of which were involved in traffic crashes and 2 who were younger than the legal age to drink alcohol of 21 years old.

That’s an increase of 1.12% from the 805 DUI arrests police made by the same time last year.

Seven of last week’s DUI bookings were in Kona, the most in any area of the island. Puna and Hilo each had 3, with North Hilo, North Kohala and Ka’u each having 1 DUI arrest.

Kona also had the most DUI arrests for the year as of Nov. 3 with 295, followed by Hilo with 239 and Puna with 167. Those are the only three areas around the island to have DUI numbers in the triple digits so far for the year.

The Hawai‘i Police Department Traffic Services Section also reviewed all updated crash information and found 832 major crashes have happened so far this year on the Big Island, a 17% increase from the 711 by this time last year.

There have been 23 fatal crashes and 25 fatalities so far this year, increases of 76.9% and 78.6%, respectively, from the 13 fatal crashes and 14 fatalities by the same time in 2023.

There have been no non-traffic fatalities, or those that do not happen on a public roadway. There also were none by this time last year.

Police report that DUI roadblocks and patrols will continue islandwide.