Police Watch for Drunk Drivers on New Year’s Eve

Fort Smith Police patrolled the streets on New Year’s Eve searching for drunk drivers.

“Hoping nothing too bad pops off and everybody you know behaves themselves,” said Officer Tim Koenigseder, with the Fort Smith Police Department.

Koenigseder watches for drunk drivers. “Anybody driving that you know swerving, or you know having the tendency to kind of steer to the left towards the center line,” he said.

Police are trained to spot people driving under the influence. “A lot of times they’ll have bloodshot watery eyes,” said Koenigseder. “I mean you can smell the odor of the intoxicants. Their speech might be slurred.”

Koenigseder looks for anything out of the ordinary. 5NEWS was in the car Monday night when he pulled over a person for driving without their headlights on.

“We can only be so many places and once and you know sometimes they’re hard to catch,” said Koenigseder.

As of 7 p.m. Koenigseder said he had already heard of two DWI arrests on New Year’s Eve in Fort Smith.

“Probably for every one we catch there’s you know probably 10 or more other ones that fly under the radar and make it to wherever they’re going,” said Koenigseder.

Police encourage people to find a designated driver. “Anything can happen in the blink of an eye, especially when you are driving drunk,” said Koenigseder.

Fort Smith police want people to find a sober driver.