The Colorado State Patrol’s DUI Task Force and troops 5A and 5C put in place two sobriety checkpoints in Ouray and Archuleta counties meant to weed out motorists driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
According to a news release from CSP, 785 people went through the Ouray County checkpoint in the town of Ridgway, resulting in one DUI arrest. The Archuleta County checkpoint, located on U.S. Highway 160 outside Pagosa Springs, had 670 motorists pass through, where two DUI arrests were made.
The checkpoints coincided with an increased patrol presence in the two counties as local and state law enforcement worked toward their goal to reduce impaired driving crashes. Troopers from the CSP statewide DUI Task Force were dispatched to the two counties to help monitor roads and catch drunken drivers.
According to a separate news release, the heightened patrols wrapped up on Sunday and resulted in 12 DUI arrests and 40 other traffic citations.
Capt. James Saunders, with CSP Troop 5C in Montrose, said his troop ran the operation in Ouray County on Aug. 22. He said the checkpoint was advertised for miles before drivers actually made it into Ridgway, and were then funneled into the visitor center parking lot, where law enforcement, emergency medical services and representatives from the 7th Judicial District Attorney’s Office were waiting. The checkpoint, he said, was more of a reminder not to drink and drive, rather than a sneaky way to arrest people.
“We were not out there to surprise anybody,” Saunders said. “The whole purpose is to say, ‘Hey, for this day, know we are going to be out there, and do not choose to drink or use drugs and drive impaired.’ So the whole point is to catch those who are choosing to drive impaired, but it’s primarily to prevent people from driving impaired.”
He said if drivers did not want to go through the checkpoint, they could drive around it on many of the county side roads around Ridgway. He also said that his troop, which patrols roads in six counties, saw zero crashes.
“In my area, we not only had zero impaired driving crashes, but there were zero crashes in our troop and we cover six counties out of the Montrose office,” Saunders said. “For a busy summer Friday night, that’s unheard of. So it was a great success.”
Saunders said his troop’s operation was well-received by community members in Ridgway.
“We had a lot of people giving us thank yous, asking us to come back and do this more often,” he said. “So that’s another component of it, is how well the public receives us and the town of Ridgway, thought it was great. We were very welcomed and encouraged to come back.”
Impaired driving – in which someone operates their vehicle while under the effects of drugs and alcohol – accounts for one out of every three traffic deaths in Colorado, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. State Patrol spokesperson Ivan Alvarado said the operation was meant to decrease the number of deaths caused by impaired driving.
“We have the troopers out there making proactive traffic stops,” he said. “But the impairment is still a big causal factor in our crashes. So it’s still, you know, hurting people, killing people.”
Saunders said the success of the impaired driving checkpoints was encouraging, but he also urged people to think before putting themselves and others in harm’s way by hopping behind the wheel after drinking.
“I like to say don’t drive to drink,” Saunders said. “If you know you’re going to be drinking with your buddies at the barbecue, don’t drive there. If you know you’re going to be drinking beer at the lake when you fish, don’t drive there. Don’t drive if you know you’re going to drink and that way you have no opportunity at all to drive back impaired.”
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
