(ABC 6 News) – The harsh road and weather conditions can make driving around the holidays in Minnesota more dangerous than normal. Something that can add to that, is drunk driving.

Starting in December, the Minnesota State Patrol increased their DWI enforcement to encourage people to find a sober ride. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work.

“Our goal is that people aren’t going to get behind the wheel and drive impaired but if they do, were going to be out there. We’ll be stopping people because we don’t want to go to somebody’s house and tell them that their loved one died because of somebody’s bad decision they made,” said Lt. Jill Frankfurth with the Minnesota State Patrol.

Unfortunately for some, the message just didn’t stick as State Patrol made hundreds of drunk driving arrests over the New Year’s holiday.

The State Patrol tells ABC 6 News they made 329 DWI arrests between 6 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Monday morning. The most, 111 of them, happened on Sunday night, New Year’s Eve.

In total, the State Patrol made more than 27,000 DWI arrests in DWI. That’s 1,300 more than in 2022.

“So we do have an increase in DWI arrests. So we need to continue to educate people on the dangers of drinking and driving. We also need to continue to follow it up with extra enforcement patrols on the roadways,” added Sgt. Troy Christianson with State Patrol.

ABC 6 News is aware of two fatal crashes that took place in the area over the weekend. As we learn more, we will give you those details.