Boone County Sheriff's Department DWI saturation successful
The department holds saturations to cover more area than a checkpoint.
Published Nov. 17, 2009
The Boone Country Sheriff's Department conducted a DWI saturation this weekend, resulting in six arrests for driving while intoxicated, a Sheriff's Department news release stated.
The saturation took place in the Lake of the Woods area from 11 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday, the release stated.
"It was very successful," Major Tom Reddin said. "Six drunks were taken off the road."
Reddin said the Sheriff's Department conducted a DWI saturation this weekend, as opposed to a checkpoint. A saturation is more widespread than a checkpoint.
"A checkpoint is located in a single place," Reddin said. "A saturation has officers located in several places throughout the county."
According to the release, the saturation also resulted in arrests for traffic violations other than driving while intoxicated. These included endangering the welfare of a child and arrests for outstanding warrants, as well as hazardous and non-hazardous moving violations. Approximately 40 vehicles were stopped during the saturation, the release stated.
Hazardous moving violations include stop sign and stop light violations, lane violations and careless and imprudent driving and speeding, the release stated. Non-hazardous moving violations include registration violations, equipment violations and operating a vehicle without a valid driver's license.
There was no particular reason the saturation occurred this weekend, Reddin said.
"Saturations are part of our efforts to remove intoxicated drivers from the area so we pick random weekends and areas where we had prior arrests or things like that," Reddin said.
According to a news release issued before the saturation, 262 people were killed in 2008 in crashes involving an impaired driver, 1,113 people were seriously injured and 3,398 received minor injuries.
Those numbers are up from 2007, a year that resulted in 243 fatalities due to impaired drivers, the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety Web site stated.
November 2008 resulted in a total of seven DWI arrests, the Boone County Sheriff's Department Web site stated. The Sheriff's Department made six arrests on the night of the saturation.
The Missouri Department of Transportation Division of Highway Safety funded the saturation, the release stated.