The Massachusetts State Police set up special Sobriety Checkpoints across the state to try to curb drunk driving. A checkpoint was set up in Agawam Friday night and nearly 600 drivers were checked and five arrested.
AGAWAM— It doesn't take a police officer long to figure out if someone who is driving a car has been drinking or not. The trick is to get that little bit of time with a large number of drivers. The Massachusetts State Police Sobriety Checkpoints give police just that, a little bit of time with a lot of drivers.
Through education and stricter enforcement of drunk driving laws, the number of people who are killed due to alcohol-impaired drivers has been cut in half since 1980 But still, nearly 10,000 people die each year, 27 a day, because people who have had too much to drink make the decision to drive a car.
State Police Lt. John Healy set up one of the State Police's Sobriety Checkpoints on Route 57 Agawam for the first time, and in the three hours troopers had all the westbound traffic slowed to pass through the checkpoint, troopers got to talk with nearly 600 drivers. Five were arrested, he said. As important as getting drunk drivers off the roadway may be, the checkpoints a have a larger secondary purpose.
"There is the educational value," Healy said, "letting people know we are out here. That has an effect on if people drive drunk in the future as well. They know there can be real consequences."
Healy and his team of 19 troopers set up in Agawam starting at 11 p.m. Friday, and ran the maximum three hours before shutting down at about 2 a.m. The logistics are impressive. With the help of the state Department of Transportation, dozens of traffic cones, reflective signs and barrels narrow the lanes of travel from three wide high-speed lanes, down to one. Massive flood lights wash the area with bright light. Nearly a dozen State Police cruisers are parked along the avenue to the checkpoint, just in case anyone thinks they can bolt out of line and get away.
Every car must stop. The only drivers who get a pass are commercial truckers with vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or more. During each brief encounter during the checkpoint, a trooper gets a few seconds to meet and greet some of the people out driving on the streets.
Sgt. Ronald Gibbons is one of those troopers. Normally he works Gaming Enforcement but tonight he is out on a chilly night chatting up drivers.
"How are you tonight," Gibbons asks gregariously, then waits for an answer. He has a big smile on his face as he waits, but his eyes are checking out the face of the driver and front seats of the car. Once he gets an answer he asks, "Been drinking tonight?" Again, he waits to hear the answer and does a little head check toward to rear of the car. Just a quick glance at the back seat area.
"He is checking for an odor of alcohol," Healy said of the procedure each greeting trooper uses. "Are the driver's eyes bloodshot or glassy, their speak slurred? Can he see any open containers in the car?."
If there are any concerns the driver is asked to pull over and several troopers surround him or her as they are put through a field sobriety examination. Balance, coordination and reasoning are all tested out there on the street. All are inversely affected by alcohol; the more alcohol consumed, the less balance, coordination and reasoning ability
Tonight, more than 99 percent get a hardy," Have a nice night and drive safely," from Gibbons. Only five are arrested. You can't see them when you pull up to the checkpoint because they are inside the large recreational vehicle that, under normal circumstances, would make any snowbird green with envy.
"We call it the Batmobile," Healy laughed. " It's out portable barracks."
Instead of luxury furniture, paneling and wall to wall carpets, the Sobriety Checkpoint Breath Analysis Testing unit has Breathalizers, and a booking area, and a mugshot machine. Healy said it is all a trooper needs to process an arrest, short of a jail cell, right there at the side of the road.
"Once they are processed here, we take them to the nearest barracks for lockup and bail determinations by a court clerk," Healy said of the arrestees.
Just before 2 a.m., the entire checkpoint started to come down. Healy said due to a Supreme Court decision, three hours is the limit police can run such mass stops. Go over by a minute then not only an arrest made after the time limit is invalidated, but all arrests made during the entire checkpoint. By about 1:58 a.m., all cars are flowing through the area unimpeded.
The State Police hold sobriety checkpoints across the state on a weekly basis. The next one is in Worcester County Saturday night into Sunday morning. Obviously, no one says where the checkpoint will be set up, but, as Healy said, just knowing there will be one nearby has an effect.
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