Thursday, December 29, 2005
Austintown has a problem with alcohol-related crashes, according to one study.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- A task force was considering safety, not people's convenience, when it held a DUI checkpoint two days before Christmas on Mahoning Avenue, the task force's grant director says.
The checkpoint, which backed up traffic for several blocks along the road during the height of last-minute holiday shopping, drew complaints from stores and township residents, township Trustee David Ditzler said at the trustees meeting Tuesday. Ditzler said he thought that 6 p.m. two days before Christmas was a poor time to hold a checkpoint on busy Mahoning Avenue.
The checkpoint was between the Sheetz gas station at Mahoning and state Route 46 and the Giant Eagle grocery.
Jim Willock, grant director for the Operating a Vehicle Impaired Task Force and police chief of Goshen Township, said there were reasons for choosing that time and place.
Worst in county
Eastgate Regional Council of Governments used three years' worth of data to determine that Mahoning Avenue from Glenwood Avenue in Youngstown to Turner Road in Austintown is the worst stretch of road in the county for alcohol-related crashes. The Youngstown portion was the worst, and the Austintown portion ranked third, according to the study.
Willock said it is Austintown's standing in that study that prompted the choice of location. He said that the task force wanted an earlier checkpoint because during the holidays, a lot of drunken drivers are coming from office parties at work rather than the bars.
He also said that for a checkpoint, an area with heavy traffic is better.
"You want the traffic. We want to make everyone aware that we're out there," he said.
Not so bad
Willock, who participated in the checkpoint, said he doesn't think traffic was backed up any worse than it would have been if there were road construction. He said the checkpoints normally stop every third car, but only 800 were stopped out of about 3,400 cars. Each car was detained for an average of 18 seconds, he said. Officers directed the cars into the curb lanes of the road, which were coned off, and the center lane kept moving, he said.
"So we try to keep them there for as little time as possible," he said.
Willock said he isn't concerned with someone being "five minutes late" getting somewhere if it means possibly preventing deaths.
"You have to look at the big picture," he said. "Our goal is safety." He said the checkpoints don't necessarily snare that many drunken drivers, but their main value is in being a deterrent to impaired driving.
"I don't disagree with all that," said Ditzler, though he pointed out that the stretch of Mahoning in Youngstown is worse than the Austintown section.
Ditzler said Mahoning Avenue's problem with alcohol-related crashes could be because there are a lot of transients coming from dry areas and from hotels in the area. The first place they find off the highways with restaurants and bars is Mahoning Avenue.
'Poor judgment'
"But that doesn't minimize the fact that it's very poor judgment to do it at that time and place. They were more of a deterrent to businesses than they were to drinking.
"I don't necessarily believe a DUI checkpoint acts as a deterrent to going to an office party. It's a deterrent to going down Mahoning Avenue."
Drivers are not forced to participate in the checkpoints, and drunken drivers can avoid them, Willock said.
Willock said the checkpoint netted one impaired driver and 45 seat-belt-law violators.
The OVI task force is made up of most law enforcement agencies in the county. Its activities are funded by federal grants administered through the state.