Published: 01/02/2008
A quiet New Year's Eve
By Dan Atkinson
Staff Writer
Police departments had a relatively quiet New Year's Eve, with Newburyport charging only one person with drunken driving, while Amesbury and Salisbury had no drunken-driving arrests. But the long weekend leading up to New Year's was another story.
With 10 arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs over the weekend, the Newburyport area saw more arrests at this time of year than in the past, which police said came from paying close attention to likely offenders throughout the holiday.
Newburyport officers pulled over 31 people between 4 p.m. and midnight on Monday, according to police logs. The stops were part of a "saturation patrol," designed to prevent drunken driving in the first place, Lt. Richard Siemasko said.
"When people came to town, we wanted them to see a lot of traffic enforcement so (they) would get the word out, and they did," he said.
Siemasko said many people in town were using taxis after celebrating the new year - when police called taxi companies for intoxicated people, they often needed 10 attempts to get through the switchboard, he said.
Amesbury Sgt. Albert Chatigny said prior to the holiday that officers would concentrate patrols downtown and monitor area bars for drunken behavior during the days leading up to New Year's Eve.
"We'll keep an extra eye on aggressive driving behaviors and blatant disregard for traffic safety," he said. "We'll try to stop people before they get to their cars, obviously. And we'll look for aggressive behavior out of the ordinary, like disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace or fighting behavior."
Last year, area police charged seven people with drunken driving between the weekend and New Year's Day. That was bested this year by three, and police also placed several people into protective custody for drunkenness and charged 13 people with underage possession of alcohol. Salisbury had extra patrols out over the holiday, with one group focusing on primary roads like Routes 1, 1A and 110 and another hitting secondary and back roads, Chief David L'Esperance said.
But L'Esperance got his wish for a quiet New Year's.
"This has been a long holiday season, and people were going out on Friday and Saturday," he said. "They know they have to go back to work Wednesday, so I think they'll just take it easy."
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