Police have set up a "no-refusal weekend," meaning that anyone who refuses to take a breath-analysis test will face a blood test instead, courtesy of two local judges on call to sign warrants.
Officers will take suspects to a local hospital to await the warrant and the blood draw.
Ohio law requires blood to be drawn within three hours of the alleged violation. Without some kind of blood-alcohol reading, the court has only the officer's word that the driver was drunk.
"The ability to refuse being tested is a serious problem in enforcement," said Lt. Edward DeVennish, head of the traffic bureau.
"The objective of the weekend is to get awareness of the problems of drunk driving out there and maybe influence someone who would otherwise drive drunk. We lose too many people to drunk drivers."
The summer holiday weekends of July Fourth, Memorial Day and Labor Day are among the worst for drunken-driving crashes. Last year in Ohio, 10 people died over the Fourth of July holiday, said Sgt. Anne Ralston of the State Highway Patrol. Six of the deaths were alcohol-related.
Sgt. Jeff Sowards, who's in charge of Columbus' push this weekend, said extra officers will be on patrol. Franklin County Municipal Judges Carrie Glaeden and Ted Barrows have volunteered to sign the warrants.
Both signed warrants over Memorial Day weekend, the first time Columbus tried a no-refusal effort. Three warrants forcing people to submit to blood tests were signed that weekend, Sowards said.
Police departments in other cities in Ohio and across the nation have conducted no-refusal weekends.
Carl Booth, coordinator of the Franklin County DUI Task Force, said Columbus' efforts are part of a countywide push to reduce alcohol-related crashes. He said 24 agencies will increase patrols and put in about 600 overtime hours this weekend.
Patrols will start earlier in the day because drunken drivers appear earlier on the Fourth. Normally, 80 percent of drunken-driving arrests are made after midnight and 17 percent between 4 p.m. and midnight. But last year on the Fourth, 45 percent of arrests were in the earlier period and 50 percent after midnight, Booth said
The task force will have a sobriety checkpoint from 9 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday at Norton Road and W. Broad Street in Prairie Township, west of I-270.
Columbus police are encouraging people to call 614-645-4545 if they see a driver who appears to be drunk, or to call 911 if they see a driver seriously endangering others, such as driving the wrong way on a freeway.
| Posted to: |