NEWRY — Oxford County Sheriff’s deputies will conduct safety checks on roads from Newry to Coburn Gore during a joint operation with Canadian law enforcement officers at Coburn Gore on April 22.

The safety awareness operation is also being conducted by law enforcement officers across the Northeast in counties that border Canada, Sheriff Wayne Gallant said Tuesday morning in Paris.

“This will start off the summer season hopefully on a safe note in both countries,” Gallant said.

Starting at about 10 a.m. to about 4 or 6 p.m. on that day on both sides of the border, law enforcement will conduct safety checkpoints on the highways to hand out educational material about the various laws between Maine and Canada or the U.S. and Canada.

“So then, when the summer months come we can make it safer for travelers and our citizens going to Canada, so they understand their laws,” he said. “We want to reinforce that with people.”

Examples of informative materials would be about safety belt laws, cellphone usage and legal drinking ages.

“With cellphone laws, there is a difference between Maine and Canada,” Gallant said. “In Maine you can use the cellphone, but if you have a violation, you could be charged, but in Canada, you cannot use a cellphone (while driving) unless you have a Bluetooth.”

Bluetooths are hands-free cellphone headsets.

“You can’t be holding a phone while driving in Canada,” he said.

“And then the other issue we felt was real important was, in the summer months we get a lot of people from Quebec who are traveling through here and they’re going to Old Orchard Beach.

“So we want to make sure they understand the drinking age in Canada compared to Maine, because we don’t want young people from Canada buying a case of beer before they leave and coming into Maine and they’re 18 years old and realize it’s against the law here,” he said.

“It’s 18 in Canada and 21 here, so if they were going to Old Orchard Beach and they are 19 and 20 years old and they buy some beer, and we stop them for something, they’re going to get an illegal transportation (charge).”

Gallant said officers will set up checkpoints along highways from Maine to New York. To kick it off, a group of Maine officers and Canadian provincial police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will meet at 10 a.m. April 22 at the border at Coburn Gore.

In Oxford County, checkpoints will be on Route 2 at Newry Corner and on Route 16 in either Lincoln or Magalloway plantation, he said. Deputies in Franklin and Somerset counties will also be participating in their jurisdictions.

“My understanding is they’ve got law enforcement set up in all the bordering counties from here to New York and participating,” Gallant said.

Federal money from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Stonegarden patrols of northern borders will pay for about eight or nine participating Oxford County deputies.

“It will just be a safety checkpoint and passing out any type of educational materials,” Gallant said of the stops. “There will be very minimal interferences with the normal flow of traffic.

“The reasonable time somebody would be stopped would just be a matter of seconds, basically.”

“It’d be just driving through, ‘Here’s a pamphlet and have a good day,’ unless we observe a violation,” Gallant said.

“Then, like we do with any other checkpoint, we move them to the side and keep the regular traffic going.”

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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