ABC 6 News – The Minnesota State Patrol has a simple message for drivers this New Year’s Eve: Drive sober or you may get charged with a DWI.

Troopers with the state highway patrol say there will be extra DWI enforcement on the roads this weekend, through the end of the year. That’s to try and curb the amount of drunk driving incidents, as the state patrol say they’ve made more than 1,200 additional DWI arrests, compared to 2022.

“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,” Lt. Jill Frankfurt, with the Minnesota State Patrol, told ABC 6 News’ sister station KSTP.

In order to try and keep drunk driving incidents to a minimum this weekend, the Metro Transit in Minneapolis and St. Paul will be offering free rides to people on Sunday, December 31.

The free rides will begin at 6 P.M. on New Year’s Eve, and continue through the end of their service that night. More information on that program can be found at this link.