Texas, You Got Your Drink On: 1,400 DWI Arrests Over the Fourth of July Week

More than 1,400 learn a hard lesson.

The Department of Public Safety has released the stats for its DWI crackdown for the week surrounding the Fourth of July, and they're impressive: 1,406 arrests were made across the state.

Of those, 575 came about because a TxDOT grant paid for troopers to work OT, something we're sure the drivers are happy about.

"With the additional grant funding, our troopers stayed on the roads longer and made more arrests. I'm certain that we prevented some potentially serious crashes by putting intoxicated drivers in jail," said David Baker, assistant director for DPS's Highway Patrol.

The DPS numbers, of course, don't include the many arrests made by local jurisdictions, lots of whom set up no-refusal checkpoints and stepped-up enforcement.

If you didn't get nabbed this time, don't lose heart: The same extra staffing is planned for Labor Day. We know 1,400 is a big hill to climb, but we have every confidence Texas will do its part. Sadly.