Grant helping increase OUI patrols

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DEXTER — The Dexter Police Department is one of several Maine law enforcement agencies participating in the “Drive Sober, Maine” high-visibility, impaired driver campaign.
And according to Det. Lt. Alan Grinnell, it’s working.

    “We made six OUI arrests so far this year related to the increased enforcement,” Grinnell said. “Anytime we can get an unsafe driver off the road is a plus.”
    The “Drive Sober, Maine” program awarded $10,000 in federal funds through the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety to the Dexter Police Department to pick up the cost of saturation patrols, roadblocks and overtime through Sept. 1.
    But Grinnell said that public awareness is the big goal. “We want people to know that we have a zero tolerance for OUI,” he said. “When you drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, you’re not only putting yourself and others at risk, but facing the loss of your driver’s license. So that’s also a hardship on your family, especially if you need to drive to work,” he explained.
    While Dexter has two taverns and two other restaurants that serve alcohol with meals, Grinnell said that no location or time frame is being specifically targeted. “Route 7 is busy all the time with traffic back and forth from the Moosehead Lake region,” he said. And while some OUI arrests are made in the wee hours of the morning, Grinnell said a recent bust came around 10 a.m. “and that was a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol.”
    Grinnell is also a certified Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) officer who is trained to perform sobriety tests on suspected substance abusers who get behind the wheel.
    Maine already scores high in one OUI statistic: the number of fatal accidents attributed to OUI is consistently below the national average.
    Nationally, the percentage of fatalities that were alcohol-related hovered between 31 and 32 percent from 2003-11, according to the Maine Department of Public Safety annual report.
    But the proportion of fatalities in Maine that were alcohol-related exceeded the national rate for just one year – 2007 – when the rate reached 36 percent.
    From 2003-06, the Maine average was close to the national rate at 30 percent; and from 2008-11, the average rate was well-below the national rate at 24 percent and hit a record low of 17 percent in 2011. However, the rate climbed back to 24 percent in 2012.
    A troubling statistic nationally and in Maine is the number of young people who perish in OUI-related accidents, Grinnell noted. “As an example, drivers from 18 to 34 years old accounted for 44 percent of the Labor Day drunk driving fatalities nationwide in 2011,” he said.
    The bottom line, said the Dexter police officer, is not to take chances. “If you’re going to party, leave the keys behind and find another way to get home,” he advised. “The risk and expense is not worth it.”