Police Holiday Enforcement Results In Arrests And Tickets

By Andrew Gorosko

Police spent 297 hours on special patrols during the recent holiday period on the lookout for drunken drivers and violators of the seat belt laws, according to police spokesman Detective Robert Tvardzik.

A federal grant helped cover the overtime worked by 14 officers on the extra patrols during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holiday periods.

The special patrols resulted in four drunken driving arrests; two arrests on charges of driving a motor vehicle while under suspension; one warning for possession of alcohol in a motor vehicle by a minor; 26 seat belt infraction tickets; 10 seat belt warnings; 49 miscellaneous motor vehicle infractions; and 68 miscellaneous motor vehicle warnings, Det Tvardzik said.

  Local police participate annually in the federally funded program intended to keep drunken drivers off the road and ensure that drivers use their seat belts.

The heightened enforcement program began November 24 and continued through New Year’s Day. It included 15 days of increased enforcement during that period. The federal government contributed $9,400, or half the project’s cost, to the town.

In Connecticut, during 1997, 132 of the 338 traffic fatalities, or 39 percent, were alcohol-related. A majority of such traffic deaths occur between Fridays at 6 pm and Mondays at 6 am.

Newtown police’s drunken driving enforcement activity focused on Routes 6, 25, 34 and 302. Patrols began at 3 pm and concluded at 3 am the following day.

Police in other towns throughout the state conducted similar enforcement projects. The purpose of the enforcement program is to reduce the number of drunken driving accidents and reduce the number of people killed and injured in such accidents.

Cockshure Island (later Hubbell Island) is a former island that was located one-third of a mile north of the Sandy Hook Bridge and was submerged after the construction of Stevenson Dam. Cockshure was a Pootatuck Indian who owned the island until 1733.