Police to continue heavy patrols
One-in-7 motorists were stopped during the city’s sobriety checkpoint held over the Christmas holiday, most cited for something other than drunk driving.
‘We had a variety of violations, in addition to charging one motorist with drunk driving,’ said McMinnville Police Sgt. Mark Mara of the checkpoints held on Old Smithville Road and South Chancery Street. ‘The percentage of people we stopped for violations during the sobriety check was a lot higher than those who were stopped during our seatbelt checkpoint on Christmas Eve.’
Mara said of the 139 cars which passed through the city’s two roadblocks, 21 motorists were detained, the major part for violation of the seatbelt law which drew 14 tickets. Seatbelt fines cost $10.
‘We also had a couple for underage consumption of alcohol and one for violation of curfew, and the one for driving on a revoked license,’ Mara said. ‘We had far fewer citations on our first checkpoint Monday when we saw around 200 motorists, but that was held in the afternoon hours and not late in the evening like our drunk driving checkpoint.’
Mara said the idea behind the checkpoints is to encourage motorists to buckle up and to discourage people from drinking and driving during the holiday season.
Mara said the initiative will continue throughout the holiday period with saturated patrols and possibly other checkpoints.
‘People have been cooperative and we’ve been trying to move things along as quickly as possible,’ Mara said. ‘I think most people realize we’re just trying to make the roads safer for everyone.’