AUGUSTA, Maine — Alcohol consumption is the cause of nearly a quarter of all fatal vehicle crashes in Maine, and the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety is paying for extra checkpoints over Labor Day weekend in an effort to stop drunken and impaired driving.
“In 2013, Maine’s alcohol-impaired driving crashes killed 35 people, accounting for 24 percent of total fatalities,” Bureau of Highway Safety officials indicated in a news release. “In continued efforts to lower those numbers, the [Regional Impaired Driving Enforcement] Teams are beefing up patrols throughout the state through the busy Labor Day weekend to remind drivers to ‘Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.’”
The RIDE teams are made up of law enforcement officers from many different agencies across Maine who apply for the funding for the overtime details.
“The bureau has made the reduction of impaired driving one of our main priorities in all corners of this state,” Lauren Stewart, director of the state bureau, said.
Maine has three teams: York and Cumberland counties and the Dirigo Team in Penobscot County.
In the applications, the agencies must identify an officer who has “a great track record for identifying impaired drivers as well as show a history in arresting and convicting those impaired drivers,” the news release states.
An extra sobriety checkpoint patrol in York County earlier this year, paid for by the bureau, resulted in four charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence, two with outstanding warrants, three drug citations and one charged for criminal registration.
During a June checkpoint on Interstate 395 checkpoint in Bangor, the Dirigo Team stopped 2,367 motorists and found eight drunken drivers, and more than 400 others were given warnings for vehicle violations. In 2013, 10,076 people were killed in the U.S. in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates roughly 40 percent of all U.S. traffic deaths are alcohol related.
“Those numbers are scary,” Stewart said. “School is starting back up and the tourist season continues through October. There’s a lot of precious cargo on our roads, and with the help of our RIDE Teams we will continue to work tirelessly to keep everyone safe.”