FARMINGTON – Police looking for drunken drivers last weekend say they found two at checkpoints on Route 4 in Sandy River Plantation and Rangeley.
Another checkpoint in Chesterville over the Labor Day weekend didn’t find anyone operating under the influence during that time, Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Turcotte said Tuesday.
Finding two offenders in a five-hour period Saturday was good, Turcotte said. He believes drunken drivers are still out there but just aren’t being caught, despite the state’s report of lower operating under the influence statistics, he said. Police are dealing with a rising number of other complaints and are not always able to patrol the roads specifically looking for drunken drivers, Turcotte said.
A state and federal highway bureau OUI enforcement grant is covering the cost of manpower for the checkpoints and providing saturated patrol this summer, Turcotte said.
The county hasn’t held OUI checkpoints in several years, Turcotte said, so he didn’t have the numbers from previous years to compare to this year’s results so far.
According to the Franklin County jail arrest log, between Aug. 12 and Sept. 4, there were nine OUI arrests, which doesn’t take into account people that were issued summonses for OUI.
More checkpoints are scheduled this year.
Out of 63 vehicles stopped during Saturday’s checkpoint in northern Franklin County, there were 22 violations, Turcotte said.
Deputies, state police and U.S. Border Patrol agents working the checkpoints issued 10 written warnings and 12 summonses.
There were seven people who had a usable amount of marijuana in their possession, Turcotte said.
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