A “disappointing” number of DUIs reported by Butte police on St. Patrick’s Day

Butte, Montana – St. Patrick’s Day in Butte saw excellent weather and large crowds. Law enforcement reported 11 drunken driving charges over the event, which they claimed was disappointing because too many individuals were driving inebriated.

“There’s just no excuse,” said Butte Sheriff Ed Lester. “We had Ubers available. There were cabs available. There were free rides home available, and so that’s the only disappointing part of the weekend I can see is we had too many DUIs.”

According to the police, 10,000 individuals celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in Uptown. For insignificant disturbances during the festivities, they made 12 arrests. Next year, police will work to improve their readiness for cases involving drunk driving.

“The highway patrol and ourselves will be out there and work even harder next year and maybe a pregame will be a little more intensive with more advertising and prevention information,” said Lester.

On Saturday morning, city workers were hard at work picking up all the debris on the streets.

“By far it was probably the biggest mess we’ve encountered the day after a St. Patrick’s Day in many years,” said Butte Events Coordinator Ed Heard.

Around five hours were spent by workers tidying up the mess.

“Pretty much used snow shovels to clean up sidewalks and it wasn’t the snow we were cleaning. A lot of cups, beer cans, left over to-go boxes from different establishments,” said Heard.

The event was right in the middle of Jon Wick’s company, 5518 Designs, and he said it was wonderful for business. He praised the cleanup team’s efforts.

“When we got here at 10 o’clock Saturday morning it felt as if St. Patrick’s Day didn’t even exist. The street was barren of all trash, everything was cleaned up. I was really proud to call Butte home after that,” said Wick.

Officers were pursuing a suspected intoxicated driver early on Saturday when the vehicle hit a road sign and then another vehicle on Montana Street. The individual was ultimately taken into custody and is currently being held on a number of counts.