Technically speaking, DUI charges can happen at any time of day. Police just need to have reasonable suspicion to pull a driver over, and then they need to gather evidence of impairment, such as the results of field sobriety tests or a breath test. People do get arrested at any time of day, and on any day of the week.
That said, there are some notable trends. For example, reports from nearby Minnesota indicate that 61% of arrests happen over the weekend. Additionally, the arrest rate starts going up after 9 p.m., peaking at around 1 a.m., but staying at an elevated level until 2 a.m. In other words, the majority of these drunk driving arrests are happening late at night or in the early morning hours, often on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
Alcohol-impaired accidents
This report is from Minnesota, but a similar trend can be expected in Illinois. Although Illinois has not produced the same documentation regarding arrests, the state does track alcohol-impaired accidents.
When looking at fatal accidents caused by alcohol, they were most common starting at midnight and running until 3 a.m. Again, this indicates that the early morning hours are some of the most common times for DUI incidents to occur, whether these are arrests or crashes.
Impairment from other substances, like marijuana, happens a bit differently. Illinois found that most of these accidents were between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Impaired driving from cannabis products appears to be much more likely in the afternoon than it is late at night.
Your defense options
Understanding when and why impaired driving arrests happen can be useful, and those who are facing serious charges also need to be aware of all of the legal defense options available to them at this time.