‘Tired of drunk drivers’: Injured Minnesota deputy shares his story as state cracks down

Chisago County Sgt. Kyle Puelston knows firsthand how debilitating a crash involving a drunken driver can be.

Three years ago, a driver with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.27% slammed into the back of Puelston’s squad car on an early December night while he was inside wrapping up a traffic stop on Hwy. 95 east of North Branch. The impact hurled Puelston forward. His head hit the roof and his neck snapped backward. He suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Puelston, a 15-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, survived, and months later returned to work. But not everybody recovers.

In the past five years, 50 people have died and hundreds more have been injured in crashes involving impaired drivers during the period from Thanksgiving eve through New Year’s Eve, according to the Department of Public Safety.

That is why Puelston is passionate about getting impaired drivers off the road and has joined an effort by 300 agencies in a statewide DWI enforcement campaign that began Wednesday and runs through Dec. 31.

“I am tired of drunk drivers taking lives of people and the quality of life away from people,” he recalled telling the judge at the sentencing for the woman who hit him.

Puelston said he still feels the effects of the 2020 crash and at times has trouble sleeping. He also wrestles with the sadness of having three close friends who were brothers killed in a crash involving a drunken driver. Puelston said he thinks about them and the impact on their families every time he arrests an impaired driver.

With the theme “What’s My Why,” law enforcement will be sharing stories about what motivates them to stop impaired drivers through messages on DPS social media channels.

The six-week campaign comes as DWI arrests are up. As of Monday, law enforcement had made 24,212 arrests, about a thousand more than at this time last year, DPS data shows. With the holiday and party season approaching, law enforcement has a simple message: “Plan for a sober ride,” said Col. Matt Langer with the Minnesota State Patrol. “We’re ready for those who don’t listen to our message.”

Langer also enlisted the help of family members and friends and asked them to intervene to keep anybody under the influence of any substance — including pot, which became legal in Minnesota this year — from driving, and if unsuccessful to call 911.

“Marijuana is every bit as dangerous,” Langer said.

In addition to campaigns to crack down on drunken driving, Minnesota conducts several enforcement campaigns throughout the year to address other dangerous driving behaviors, including distracted driving, speeding and not using seat belts.

But more work needs to be done, Puelston said.

“This holiday season, law enforcement is going to continue the fight to keep drunk drivers off the road and keep them from injuring or killing others,” he said. “It is a fight to keep my story from having to be someone else’s story. This fight is a fight worth having.”