By Kathryn Skelton,Staff Writer

Turkey, Santa, more cops on the road. It’s that time of year.

Police across Maine are gearing up for intensive sweeps by car and plane to nab people who get behind the wheel after too much holiday revelry.

Nearly one-third of those killed on Maine roads between last Thanksgiving and New Year’s – 6 of the 19 – had been drinking.

In all, more than 73,000 arrests have been made in Maine for operating under the influence during the last 10 years, dozens of those drivers mere kids, 10 or younger.

“From a state perspective, OUI remains a significant problem,” said Maine State Police Col. Craig Poulin.

In extra patrols from Dec. 16 to Jan. 1, his troopers will dually focus on drunken and aggressive driving – there’s too much of both in Maine, he said.

Lots of those arrests lead to people operating after suspension, Poulin added, a hot button issue since a chronically OAS trucker slammed into a woman on the Turnpike last summer. She died days later.

State Police on the ground and in the sky will be at known problem areas like Route 4 in Turner, Route 111 in York and the Turnpike.

To crack down on drunken driving, Maine is:

• one of four states with a tougher, lower blood-alcohol standard for repeat offenders

• one of 41 that allow police to stop drivers at sobriety checkpoints, and

• one of 32 with laws that can hold hosts liable if an obviously intoxicated guest leaves and gets in a crash that injures or kills someone else, according to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

As of September, the state also stiffened penalties for a third OUI offense, with a fine of at least $1,100.

Maine was one of the first states to lower its OUI threshold to 0.08 and has most of the same drunken-driving laws as the rest of the country, with few exceptions.

For instance, all but six states – Maine among the six – sanction the use of vehicle interlocks that require drivers convicted of OUI to blow into a device to prove they haven’t been drinking before their cars will start. A majority of other states also have Victim’s Rights constitutional amendments that give victims a voice in the judicial process, and the states make it illegal for someone under 21 to try to buy alcohol, according to MADD studies.

Traffic-related alcohol deaths here had been declining until two years ago, said Lauren Stewart, director of the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety.

At that low point in 2002, alcohol factored into 19 percent of all traffic-related fatalities. By 2004, it had crept up to 30 percent.

“People may be forgetting the message,” Stewart said.

In Farmington this month, police will send extra cars on back roads and in town looking for those driving erratically, taking wide turns or acting suspicious.

“Every year, it seems like someone gets to celebrating to the extreme, get behind the wheel and think they can drive,” said Detective Marc Bowering.

Lt. Rick Coron in Auburn, which also has special weekend patrols at the holidays, said he’s noticed cell phone users’ willingness to call police and turn in fellow motorists, often tailing them at a safe distance until police arrive. “It’s almost like we have a million eyes out there,” he said.

In the last two years, OUI arrests here have peaked in May and September. Stewart attributes that to more people on the road, more tourists, more nighttime activities.

December has traditionally been one of the lowest months for OUI arrests.

“The police make no secret they’re going after drunk drivers” this time of year, she said. “Everybody knows don’t drink on New Year’s because the cops are going to get you.”

Just before Christmas, the Secretary of State’s Office will hold its annual event on the Turnpike, to encourage alert, sober driving. Last year, tollbooth workers handed out 30,000 cards featuring awareness tips, each redeemable for a free cup of coffee.