All but 1 avoid DWI arrest Sunday

A Boardman man was charged with driving drunk.

STAFF REPORT

Judging by a sampling of local arrests, maybe Super Bowl revelers found a designated driver.

The Mahoning County Operating Vehicle Impaired Task Force had saturation patrols working throughout the county during the game. The task force joined with the National Football League, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and other law enforcement to remind everyone to act responsibly by designating a sober driver if they planned on drinking alcohol on Super Bowl Sunday.

The various task force jurisdictions set their own hours, said Tracy Styka, task force coordinator. Most police departments working saturations patrols had extra officers out from 6 p.m. Sunday until midnight, and a few worked until 2 a.m. Monday.

During that time, troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol Canfield post made no drunken-driving arrests, the patrol said.

Neither did deputies from the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department, a sergeant said.

A 37-year-old Boardman man wasn’t so fortunate. He was stopped by Boardman police about 10:30 p.m. on Southern Boulevard after he ran over a cement island at U.S. Route 224, a police report said.

The man was cited with operating a motor vehicle while impaired but refused to submit to a Breathalyzer test.

Law enforcement officials in Columbiana and Trumbull counties reported there were no drunken-driving arrests during or after the Super Bowl.

In Youngstown, there were no drunken-driving arrests, but a group of juveniles going up and down North Hartford Avenue late Sunday afternoon damaged yard decorations, including an inflatable NFL snow globe featuring the Steelers that was cut several times.

At 9:20 p.m. Sunday (close to the game’s halftime), two men in their mid-20s ran out of Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar on East Federal Plaza without paying their $15.20 bill, police said. The men jumped into a red SUV, possibly a Chevrolet, and traveled north on Wick Avenue. The manager got the license plate number, but the plate is registered to a white, four-door Buick.