New York State Police issued 11,104 tickets and arrested 211 people for driving while intoxicated during the 2026 Memorial Day weekend traffic enforcement campaign that ran from May 22 to 25.
Troopers investigated 693 crashes during the four days, including four fatal crashes, according to State Police data in the Syracuse Post Standard.
The enforcement campaign included sobriety checkpoints and additional DWI patrols across the state. Troopers also targeted drivers using handheld electronic devices.
Speeding violations accounted for the largest portion of citations, with troopers issuing 3,116 tickets. State Police also cited 1,742 drivers for seatbelt violations, 338 for distracted driving, and 249 for Move Over Law violations.
Closer to home, State Police in Troop B arrested 11 for DWI, 357 for speeding, 21 for distracted driving, 134 seat belt or child restraint violations, and 61 for failure to move over during the Memorial Day weekend traffic enforcement campaign.
The Post Standard also reported that New York State Police issued 50 tickets during a five-hour enforcement operation in early July along the Thruway near Exit 23 in Albany, with speeding accounting for the vast majority of violations.
Troop T (Thruway) conducted Operation Hard Hat, issuing 46 speeding tickets and four other vehicle and traffic law violations. Police also arrested one person on an outstanding felony warrant.
Operation Hard Hat is part of an ongoing campaign to protect highway workers, emergency personnel, and motorists from dangerous driving in work zones. The high number of violations in a short timeframe underscores the ongoing risks highway workers face and the need for greater driver awareness in these areas.
According to the Post Standard article, work zone safety has become an increasing concern on the Thruway. In 2025, there were 228 crashes in Thruway work zones that resulted in 28 injuries, the highest level since 2020.
Not to trivialize the importance of traffic safety, I will finish this article with an unrelated piece of trivia sent to me by a faithful reader of these weekly articles. It relates to the re-numbering of interstate highway exits in New York State from sequential numbering to mileage-based numbering, which has now been completed for I-81 from the Pennsylvania border to the Canadian border.
For I-81, when the highway leaves Pennsylvania and enters New York south of Binghamton, sequential numbering begins with zero at the border and increases based on mileage from the PA/NY border. It is coincidental that the Marathon exit, between Binghamton and Cortland, just happens to be 26 miles from the PA border. Thus it is exit 26, the mileage of a full marathon race (actually 26.2 miles).
Furthermore, when I-81 connects with the NYS Thruway (Interstate 90) in Syracuse, it happens to be 90 miles from the PA/NY border. Thus, this exit is now exit 90 on I-81. Just a bit of trivia you might enjoy.