Police arrest 22 for suspected DUI

Hawaii Island police arrested 22 motorists for driving under the influence of an intoxicant between Dec. 26 and Sunday. Five of the drivers were involved with traffic crashes and two of the drivers were younger than age 21.

Kona officers arrested 11 drivers while South Hilo officers arrested six and Puna officers five, according to the Hawaii Police Department.

In 2016, there were 1,111 DUI arrests compared with 1,064 in 2015, an increase of 4.4 percent. There were 1,436 major accidents during the year compared with 1,550 in 2015, a decrease of 7.4 percent.

In 2016, there were 27 fatal crashes on Hawaii Island (five of which had multiple deaths), resulting in 32 fatalities, compared with 15 fatal crashes (three of which had multiple deaths), resulting in 19 fatalities in 2015. This represents an increase of 80 percent for fatal crashes and 68.4 percent for fatalities.