Local North Carolina State Highway Patrol troopers had a busy week over the Fourth of the July holiday, as they kicked off the Governor’s Highway Safety Program’s “Booze It & Lose It” campaign.

The statewide crackdown on drunk driving yielded an impressive 735 charges against area drivers, part of which 1^st Sgt. Brandon Craft attributed to the number of travelers heading to the beach over the holiday.

“There was a lot more traffic,” Craft said. “We’ve got beach roads. Most of our tickets were written on  (U.S. Highway) 264 in Tyrrell and Washington counties.”

Those tickets issued by 18 regional troopers included 162 seat belt violations, 16 child restraint violations, 328 speeding tickets and 215 other traffic violations.

“Yeah, 328. That’s a lot of speeding tickets,” Craft said.

Craft said 10 people were arrested for DWIs, of which two were underage.

Over the past weekend, Craft and a few troopers traveled to Ocracoke where the summer crowds were thick.

“I don’t know how the island didn’t sink, it was so busy,” Craft laughed.

The Ocracoke trip was part of the “On the Road, On the Water” campaign, which also involves North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission officers. There, troopers gave out 33 seatbelt tickets, three child-restraint ticket and arrested three drunk drivers.

State numbers have yet to be released for the two-week “Booze It & Lose It” campaign.