Police stopped 10,000 vehicles at various places around the two regions during the weekend, district road policing manager Inspector Andrew Burns said.
''While 17 drivers is a low number, 17 drivers is still too many and creates a level of risk to all of us on the roads.''
But given the number of drivers breath-tested, it appeared many drivers understood the risk of drink driving and did not do it, he said.
Of the 32 crashes reported to police, early indications were that only one resulted in serious injury, while the others were minor or low injury incidents.
Overall, it was generally a quiet Easter and drivers were mostly well-behaved, he said.
''Although the holiday period is now over, the challenge is for drivers to remain focused on safe driving behaviour so that we continue to reduce the trauma on our roads,'' Insp Burns said.
