PARIS – One after the other, seven drivers charged with operating under the influence were brought into the Oxford County Jail from Friday night through Saturday morning.

Seven charges of drunken driving made an unbroken chain on the jail’s arrest log, and the suspects were often admitted within minutes of each other. Three of the drivers were charged with other offenses.

According to statistics, the jail averaged less than one oui booking a day last year.

David Allen Veinott, 23, of Buckfield was the first driver arrested. He was booked shortly before 8 p.m. Friday. He was also charged with operating with a suspended license and posted a $1,000 unsecured bail. An unsecured bail does not need to be paid unless the offender does not show up in court, in which case they can be arrested again and the bail will go into effect.

“Most of them are bailed within a few hours,” jail administrator Ernest Martin said.

Veinott was released shortly after 9 p.m. After four hours, two more drivers were admitted within 10 minutes of one another. Michael Aaron Roakes, 26, of Lewiston was held on $1,500 bail, and Justine A. Haverinen, 24, of Norway was held on a $1,500 unsecured bail.

Michael C. Heino, 24, of Paris was admitted to the jail at 2:20 a.m. Saturday, and Travis L. Brown, 19, of Harrison followed five minutes later. Both were charged with operating under the influence and held on $500 unsecured bail.

The last drivers were admitted an hour later. Amber N. Murphy, 18, of Lewiston was brought to the jail at 3:25 a.m. and Angela Denise Smith, 27, of Andover, arrived at 3:26 a.m. Saturday. Murphy was held without bail. Smith was given personal recognizance bail, which is given to residents trusted to show up in court.

Roakes and Murphy’s higher bails are a result of additional charges. Roakes was charged with unlawful possession of Oxycodone, and Murphy was charged with operating without a license and violating conditions of release.

Haverinen, Smith, Heino and Brown were all released Saturday morning between 6:30 and 10:30 a.m.

Martin said this is often a result of conditions set by the bail commissioner to hold a prisoner until they are sober. However, this condition was only applied to Haverinen.

“Sometimes they just don’t call for bail at 3 a.m.,” Martin said.

Three of the offenders were arrested by Dana Wessling of the Norway Police Department.

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” he said. He said he believes Saturday’s spike in OUIs is a result of the warm weather.

Troopers Corey Smith and Kyle Tilsley of the Maine State Police recorded one arrest each. The other arrests were credited to Lawrence Winson of the Rumford Police Department and Raymond Paar of the Paris Police Department.

Police will pull over a vehicle if they have received a complaint or if they have probable cause to believe the driver is intoxicated. Two of Saturday’s drivers were initially pulled over for speeding, but the smell of alcohol alerted officers to their condition.

“We do at least three sobriety tests on them,” said Dane Tripp, chief deputy at the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office.

That includes straight-line walking, hand-eye coordination, and alphabet tests.

OUI arrests are also made on probable cause, due to the failure of the tests or an officer’s suspicion. Suspects are tested at the jail with an Intoxilyzer, and failure to take this test results in a penalty. A blood alcohol level of .08 or higher is illegal for someone driving a vehicle.

After a 45-minute booking process, suspects are sent to a jail cell. The person’s car is usually towed to prevent it from becoming a hazard.

The holding cell, or “drunk tank,” is only used for disorderly, problematic inmates. Still, Martin said, they are usually uncooperative and have to be put in the holding cell until they are sober.

The arrest log did not note any disorderly behavior from the seven arrested drivers.

A bail commissioner sets the bail, which can range from personal recognizance to several hundred dollars cash if there are aggravated circumstances. The commissioner charges a $40 fee.

The Sheriff’s Office and community police receive dedicated overtime funds from the state each year to specifically target drunken drivers. The departments will focus their crackdown from Aug. 17 to Sept. 3.

“The Oxford County Sheriff’s Office is going to be very aggressive in those periods of time, as we are every day of the week,” Tripp said.

Operating under the influence is a Class D misdemeanor, and the charge accounts for more bail violations than any other charge, according to jail records. There were 228 OUI arrests in Oxford County last year.

Martin stressed that the fines incurred as a result of an OUI conviction are high. A conviction for a second offense will result in seven days in jail, an 18-month license suspension and fines of nearly $900.

In addition, motor vehicle insurances usually go up.

“It’s very, very expensive,” he warned.