The city of Gainesville is trying to do it's part this holiday weekend in protecting the residents who live here and the visitors who come here. And in turn, local and state law enforcement agencies are asking drivers to do their part - be safe behind the wheel.

Drunk driving related deaths often times increase during a holiday weekend and it's DUI checkpoints that could deter drivers from getting behind the wheel and prevent what could be the inevitable. But, the checkpoint isn't only to keep drunk drivers off the road.

"Here in the city of Gainesville for the holiday weekend this check point is designed to identify driver's, an ongoing enforcement program that we do designed to identify drivers that may be operating vehicles with faulty equipment with no insurance, no driver's license or that may be operating under the influence of drugs of alcohol," says FHP Lieutenant John Gourley.

For the second time this year, the Gainesville district of the Florida Highway Patrol partnered with several state and local law enforcement agencies including GPD, ASO and the Waldo and High Springs Police Departments. One young man received a warning for not wearing a helmet while riding his scooter.

"I've never seen anyone wear helmets on campus, I've never seen anyone wear helmets on the streets. I've also never seen a scooter pulled over for any reason so it's kind of weird I got pulled over today" remarked Justin Glanton.

There were more serious violations including 7 felony arrests, mainly on drug related charges. Three citations were given out for people not wearing their seat belts, a law that just went into effect this week.

But the best number all night may have been zero - zero DUI arrests were made.

"State agencies were closed tonight so this was basically a holiday day for most people and that's why we're out in force tonight to try to deter drunk driving and apprehend people that may be driving under the influence," says Gourley.

In total, 17 arrests were made. 104 citations were given out including 10 warnings. There were 1131 vehicles that passed through the checkpoint during the four hour period. Police officers and sheriff's deputies confiscated over 112 grams of marijuana and over seven grams of crack cocaine.