CONNECTICUT, USA — As families hit the road this holiday weekend, all 11 troops with the Connecticut State Police will be out in full force.
FOX61 got a chance to ride along with a trooper out of Troop I in Bethany to see what those efforts looked like.
“We’re enforcing drunk drivers, speeders, aggressive driving, things like that,” said Trooper Daniel McCue with the Connecticut State Police.
Those enforcement efforts began Friday at midnight, and they’ll last through 11:59 p.m. on Monday. Troopers will be conducting roving DUI (Driving Under the Influence) patrols and looking for other violations.
McCue’s focus, as he drove along Rt 8 on Friday, was speeding. It’s something he said he’s seen a lot of in his three years as a trooper.
“Speed, high levels of alcohol volume in people’s blood. A lot of times, I’ll get reports after unfortunately, someone’s passed away and they do the autopsy, and people are coming back with high blood alcohol contents with drugs in their system,” McCue said. “You’re putting everyone’s lives in danger when you’re driving like that.”
Many times, when people make those choices on CT roadways, it turns deadly.
According to data coming from the Connecticut Department of Transportation, so far this year, 209 people have died on Connecticut roadways. Compared to this time last year, that number sat at 235 deaths. And in 2021, 195 people died on our roadways at this point in the year.
“I think to myself, if everyone’s doing 55 or 65, the speed limit, driving straight down the road, no distractions, we wouldn’t be as busy and the highways wouldn’t be as crazy as they are now,” McCue said.
This is why McCue is not only handing out tickets this weekend, but he’s also stopping drivers and giving them warnings. The focus there, he said, is education.
“At the end of the day, we’re just, we’re out to help you. I’m out here enforcing speed right now so families you know going on vacation or something have a safe highway,” McCue said.
Last Labor Day weekend, Connecticut State Troopers responded to 6,153 calls for service.
They caught 377 people for speeding, and 345 people got into an accident. There were also 30 DUI arrests.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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