As Hawai‘i Island drivers navigate the holiday season, recent data reveals a mix of sobering trends and cautious optimism regarding impaired driving. According to a report by the Hawai‘i Police Department's Traffic Services Section, there were nine DUI arrests on the island between December 1 and December 7. The report further notes that one of these incidents involved a traffic collision, while one arrest involved a motorist below the legal drinking age of 21.
The numbers reflect a slight decrease in DUI arrests when set against the backdrop last year's statistics – there have been 849 DUI arrests to date this year, lesser than the 902 arrests recorded during the same period in 2024, marking a decrease of 5.88 percent—which might suggest progress, but the battle against impaired driving is far from won with major crashes on the rise in 2025, having increased by 1.96 percent to 938 from the previous year’s count of 920, according to the Hawai‘i Police Department.
So far, there have been 18 fatal crashes with 20 deaths, a drop of about 28% compared to 25 crashes and 28 deaths at the same time last year. This shows that road safety efforts are making a difference, even though risks still remain, as per the Hawai‘i Police Department.
