Standing in the foreground of Sykesville's rolling hills and rural roadways, Westminster Police Chief Jeffrey Spaulding wanted to be clear to drunken drivers to not think about driving on roads such as those in Carroll County.

In fact, don't drive at all.

"Taking the back roads to avoid police is a thing of the past," Spaulding said. "We'll be on back roads aggressively searching for the driver who made the worst possible decision to drink and drive."

Police from across Maryland, along with state officials, hosted a press conference at the Maryland Public Safety Education and Training Center in Sykesville on Monday, Aug. 18, to kick-off a campaign to crack down on drunken driving.

Checkpoint Strikeforce is a six-year-old national educational program and campaign that uses data to focus on problems on drunken driving patrols. This year's campaign focuses on rural roads and on men between the ages of 21 and 35.

More than half of the nation's traffic fatalities in 2006 occurred on rural roads, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Also, preliminary data for 2007 show that alcohol-related fatalities in the state were slightly more than in 2006.

DUI enforcement patrols and more sobriety checkpoints will be implemented starting this weekend and for the remainder of the year, Spaulding said.

Every Marylander can help in the campaign by pledging not to drive drunk and by calling 911 and report drunk drivers, Spaulding said.

"The bottom line for those who drink and drive is that you will be caught, you will be arrested, you will lose your driver's license and you will be prosecuted," he said.

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler said drunken drivers often use rural roads because they live there and to avoid checkpoints.

"The problem is that rural roads, by definition, are more narrow, they curve, there are trees and things on the side. Too often do we see kids that are wrapped around trees or hit innocent victims," he said.

Gansler said prosecution of drunken drivers will also be more aggressive to get a conviction.

"If you make the mistake and you do it ... you should have a drunk driving conviction on your record. ... It doesn't end your life, but it should be on your record as you go forward," he said.

After another DUI arrest, the person should go to jail, he said.

"The sound of the jail cell closing is the sobering note that often many people need to address their problems," he said.

Gansler said he also wants Maryland police to be able to do breath tests when they pull over a suspected drunken driver.

He said it's difficult to tell whether someone is at the .08 blood alcohol content limit by looking at them. The breath test would be readily available and could measure a person's alcohol content and could complement a field test where people recite the alphabet and walk a line, he said.

The test is "something where we have dispositive scientific result as to whether or not that person is drinking and driving," he said.

The tests would be coupled with what Gansler called "super drunk" legislation where longer sentences would be given to people who have a higher blood alcohol content, he said.

The state will spend $400,000 through State Highway Safety-sponsored Washington Regional Alcohol Program to get the message out about the dangers and consequences of drunken driving, Gansler said.

The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is one of many Maryland police agencies participating in Checkpoint Strikeforce. Carroll residents can expect to see more deputies take the road to look for drunken drivers, said Maj. Phil Kasten, public information officer.

Through the end of June, deputies have made 111 DUI arrests, Kasten said. Most of the alcohol-related crashes the Sheriff's Office responded to have occurred on rural roads, according to data provided by Kasten.

---

user comments (0)