A dramatic rise in the number of drunk and alcohol- impaired driving arrests this year so far has alarmed Riverhead Town justices and, according to the chief of police, has no obvious explanation.
Town Justices Lori Hulse and Sean Walter also say defendants are being charged with having blood alcohol concentration levels higher than they’ve seen in their years on the town court bench.
The number of drunk and impaired driving arrests in Riverhead Town in the first three months of this year is more than double the number of those arrests during the same period in 2023, according to Riverhead Police Department data.
Town Police made 72 DWI and DWAI arrests Jan. 1 through March 31 this year, compared with 34 arrests for those offenses in the same period of 2023. The number in 2023 was up from 28 such arrests in the first three months of 2022.
Police Chief David Hegermiller said in an interview Friday that nothing has changed in the way officers are patrolling the town’s roads and that the department has not conducted any DWI checkpoints during the first three months of the year.
“I’m not sure why it is, but it’s something other agencies are reporting also,” Hegermiller said. The increase was a topic of discussion during a seminar he participated in this week, he said.
“The number of DWIs has increased exponentially from when I started [as town justice] in 2016,” Hulse said. “And it’s not atypical to see an individual who has multiple pending DWIs,” she said.
Beyond that, Hulse said, blood alcohol concentration levels are higher than they used to be. “I’m frequently seeing BACs over 0.30 — consistently even .32,” she said. “That’s four times the legal limit.”
A BAC level of .08 and above is the threshold for driving while intoxicated in New York, and a BAC level of .18 or higher is the threshold for aggravated driving while intoxicated. Operating a motor vehicle with a BAC of .05 to .07 constitutes driving while ability impaired.
Blood alcohol concentration levels are typically determined by a breath test administered during a traffic stop or after a crash, when alcohol consumption is suspected. Refusal to submit to a breath test is a separate violation punishable by an immediate one-year license revocation and a fine.
Use of marijuana does not affect blood alcohol concentration. Some medications and drugs can interact with alcohol and cause your BAC to rise more quickly.
“Why have the number of arrests increased so significantly and why are the readings so high?” Hulse asked. “We’re on track to hit 300 DWI cases this year.”
It’s alarming, Hulse said. The multiple DWIs pending at once are alarming, too, she said. “I’ve never seen this.”
The majority of DWI cases coming before her are people Hulse categorizes as “middle-aged.”
“Basically, it’s not the young drivers in their 20s.”
There are very likely drunk drivers on the roads than the numbers reflected in arrests, the judge said. “These numbers represent just the people who are charged,” Hulse said. “How many more are on the road?”
Hulse said she wonders whether the spike in DWIs is the result of the reported increase in alcohol use during the pandemic and, potentially, an increase in alcoholism rates.
Hegermiller said the rise could be at least partially the result of simply more vehicles on the road.
He said he does not see any correlation between DWI arrests and the number of breweries, wineries and distilleries in the local area — especially since the first three months of the year are well outside of tourist seasons.
The legalization of to-go cocktails in New York might be a factor, the chief said in response to a question about the impact of that law. A bill made part of the state budget this year extended through 2030 the cocktails-to-go law first adopted on a temporary basis during the COVID-19 lockdown. The to-go law, extended once already, was set to expire at the end of 2025.
Having an open alcohol container inside a motor vehicle remains illegal, however — regardless of the type of alcohol or the type of establishment at which it was purchased.
Correction: The expression of blood alcohol concentration in the original text of this article was incorrect, due to misplaced decimal points.
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