Bend Police arrest 8 allegedly intoxicated drivers over holiday weekend

Published 3:21 pm Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Eight people were arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicants over the weekend, according to a press release from the Bend Police Department.

Seven of these people were arrested on New Year’s Eve and in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, police reported.

One person was arrested after crashing a gray Chevy Malibu into a parked car on NE Linnea Street around 10:59 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, police said.

Police arrested the driver of a black Lexus sedan after midnight at the intersection of NE 27th Street and NE Wells Acres Road. The person reportedly drove the car up onto the sidewalk during the traffic stop.

Police arrested the driver of an FJ Cruiser at 1:16 a.m. at the corner of NE First Street and NE Franklin Avenue. The driver reportedly didn’t have the vehicle’s headlights on.

And police arrested another person who was driving a gray Jeep at the intersection of NW Franklin Avenue and NW Bond Street. Police reported this driver was going the wrong way on the one-way street there.

The arrests bring the annual number of DUII arrests in 2022 to at least 683, an increase from 509 in 2021, Bend police reported.

That annual increase has been driven largely by a team of officers who focus on cracking down on intoxicated driving, Bend police said last week. Meanwhile, DUII-related crashes increased last year, from 24 in 2021 to 32 in 2022, according to data obtained by The Bulletin.

Out of concern for intoxicated driving over the holiday, Bend police increased the number of officers on patrol, using its entire traffic team and staffing two officers on overtime.