Over Labor Day weekend, local law enforcement made 19 DUI arrests on Santa Clarita roadways, officials said.

Starting on Friday at 6:01 p.m., the California Highway Patrol launched their Maximum Enforcement Period (MEP), which lasted until Monday at 11:59 p.m., according to officials.

The goal of the MEP is to have all available CHP officers patrolling to look for impaired drivers on California roadways, officials said.

During the 2019 MEP, 1,078 DUI arrests were made by CHP and at least 45 people were killed in crashes across the state of California, according to CHP officials.

“Sadly, an overwhelming majority — 74 percent — of vehicle occupants killed in the CHP jurisdiction were not wearing a seat belt,” according to a CHP tweet.

This year, the DUI arrests are down from last year; however, the number of DUI fatalities were up.

During the 2018 Labor Day weekend, 36 people were killed on California roads and 1,084 were arrested for DUI, according to officials.

The CHP Newhall Area Office also set up a DUI checkpoint Friday night in efforts to prevent Santa Clarita residents from driving under the influence.

“(During) the checkpoint, we contacted approximately 280 vehicles,” said Officer Eric Priessman, a spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol Newhall Area Office. “We made one arrest for DUI, cited five unlicensed drivers, made one arrest for a $50K warrant and impounded one vehicle.”

In addition to the one DUI arrest made from the checkpoint, CHP officers made an additional four DUI arrests on Santa Clarita roadways, arrest records showed.

Over the weekend, CHP officers from the Newhall Area Office weren’t the only members of local law enforcement taking impaired drivers off the roads.

Deputies with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station made 14 DUI arrests beginning Friday morning through Monday evening, according to officials.

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