Sobriety Checkpoints

August 19, 2009

DWI News: Drunk Driving Patrols, Sobriety Checkpoints Scheduled across New Jersey for Next Couple Weeks

Drivers in Monmouth and Essex Counties, along with many other parts of New Jersey, will see numerous Drunk driving patrols over the coming weeks. DWI sobriety checkpoints throughout the Garden State will also be evident during the days leading up to the coming Labor Day holiday weekend. These checkpoints, also known as sobriety roadblocks, are commonly used by law enforcement as one way to decrease the number of alcohol-related auto accidents and deaths on the state’s highways and surface streets.

As a New Jersey DWI defense lawyer, my office alerts motorists to these checkpoints due to the number of driving while intoxicated arrests in these areas. By law, state, county and municipal arms of law enforcement can only set up checkpoints in locations that have a statistically high incidence of people driving under the influence of alcohol.

Standard procedure at these checkpoints includes police giving field sobriety tests to drivers that appear to be intoxicated. If the officer is satisfied that an individual operating a vehicle is possibly drunk, a breath test will usually be administered to determine the blood alcohol content (BAC) of that driver.

July 31, 2009

Breaking DWI News: Monmouth County, NJ, Sobriety Checkpoint

by Jonathan F. Marshall

A new sobriety roadblock will be set up in Monmouth County, New Jersey, beginning tonight (11pm on July 31) and remaining in effect until 3am on Saturday, August 1, 2009, in an attempt to catch drunk drivers in the Allenhurst, NJ, area. According to the Monmouth Co. DWI Task Force, which will be working in concert with the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, the sobriety checkpoint will be screening drivers to detect those individuals operating their vehicles under the influence of alcohol and/or illicit or prescription drugs.

This latest drunk driving roadblock will be located along the northbound lanes of Main Street near Elberon Avenue, where drivers will be routed to determine their level of inebriation, if any. During the DWI stops, the task force members and officers from the Allenhurst Police Department will use standardized field sobriety testing as established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

In the state of New Jersey, sobriety checkpoints are typically employed by local police and other law enforcement agencies to help decrease the occurrence of alcohol-related auto accidents and fatalities across the state’s rural and urban roads, as well as on the highways and other high-traffic roadways.

July 2, 2009

DWI-DUI Sobriety Checkpoint Scheduled for Ocean Township, NJ, this July 4th Weekend

by Jonathan F. Marshall

New Jersey’s drunk driving laws will be strictly enforced this Fourth of July weekend, especially in Ocean Township, Monmouth County, where a sobriety checkpoint will be in effect from Friday evening until early Saturday morning. Sobriety checkpoints are frequently used by police and other law enforcement agencies to identify drunk drivers and make arrests for DWI and driving under the influence of illegal or prescription drugs.

As part of these sobriety roadblocks, police usually ask drivers suspected of driving while intoxicated to take one or more field sobriety tests. Breath testing apparatus, such as the Alcotest machine, are also employed to determine the specific content of alcohol in an individual’s bloodstream. The legal limit in New Jersey is 0.08 percent blood alcohol content (BAC).

This latest sobriety checkpoint will be set up on Ocean Avenue in the borough of Deal and remain in effect from 11pm Friday through 3am. Task force members and officers from the Deal Police Department will pull vehicles from the northbound lanes into the Deal Casino Beach Club parking lot to determine drivers’ sobriety, according to a press release issued by Brielle Police Chief Michael W. Palmer, task force coordinator.

June 4, 2009

New Jersey DWI Sobriety Checkpoint in Marlboro Scheduled for this Friday Night

by Jonathan F. Marshall

The Marlboro Police Department will be checking for drunk drivers this Friday night and into the early morning hours of Saturday, June 6. Working in cooperation with the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, members of the Monmouth County DWI Task Force will be checking for drivers who may be under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or other drugs, along the southbound lanes of Route 9 in Marlboro.

Officers will be signaling to drivers to pull over into the local Lowe’s parking lot in Marlboro to check driver sobriety between the hours of 11 p.m. on Friday night and 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. This is according to Brielle Police Chief Michael W. Palmer, the task force coordinator.

This upcoming sobriety roadblock is one of many set up during the year to root out drunk drivers. These checkpoints are used by police across New Jersey to help decrease the number of alcohol-related auto accidents and deaths. Information on these roadblocks is not always readily available, but the law stipulates that impending sobriety checkpoints must be publically announced beforehand. The law also requires New Jersey’s state, county and municipal law enforcement departments only to establish checkpoints based on certain criteria, such as statistical data that indicates an area has a high incidence of DWI arrests.

May 22, 2009

DWI News: New Jersey Ranked First in “Unfair” Traffic Fines, Enforcement Practices

by Jonathan F. Marshall

With Memorial Day weekend upon us, we have one observation for New Jersey motorists: The Garden State is no paradise when it comes to drunk drivers, speeders and other hapless recipients of tickets and summonses from our traffic enforcement community. Intoxicated drivers in particular beware, according to the National Motorists Association (NMA) our state goes to the head of the class when it comes to exploitation of the road-going public.

Although DWI and DUI were not addressed specifically, the NMA did rank individual states based on seventeen criteria related to traffic laws, police enforcement practices, as well as how defendants are typically treated. The rankings, according to the NMA, are “designed to provide guidance to travelers who do not want their vacation ruined by speed traps, arcane laws or ‘kangaroo’ traffic courts.”

Not surprisingly, New Jersey was found to be the state most likely to dip deeper into a driver’s wallet. With our toll roads, sobriety roadblocks and speed traps, New Jersey has left almost no stone unturned when it comes to extracting cash from motorists, says the NMA. New Jersey has also recently pushed through a red-light camera pilot project at a time when many states are banning the ticket cameras because “they’ve proven to have a negative effect on traffic safety.” Add in “driver responsibility” fees, which are ineffective and have a disproportionate effect on the poor, and we find ourselves at the top of the list. For those keeping score, here is the NMA’s top ten worst states:

May 16, 2009

Monmouth County, New Jersey: Latest DWI Sobriety Checkpoint

by Jonathan F. Marshall

The most recent sobriety roadblock in Monmouth County was in force this past Friday night and Saturday morning on Route 36 in West Long Branch. The county’s DWI Task Force was working in concert with the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety to identify and pull over intoxicated drivers operating their vehicles under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Here in New Jersey, these sobriety checkpoints are commonly used by law enforcement as a way to decrease the number of alcohol-related auto accidents and deaths on the state’s highways and surface streets. To maintain a modicum of fairness, the law insists that state, county and municipal arms of law enforcement set up these checkpoints using certain criteria, such as choosing a location based on statistical data that indicates it has a high incidence of people driving while intoxicated.

Police typically employ field sobriety tests and/or a breathalyzer test to determine a driver’s blood alcohol content (BAC). As New Jersey DWI Attorneys, we advise anyone who has been issued a DWI summons as a direct result of a roadblock to retain the services of a skilled legal professional.

May 1, 2009

Middlesex County DWI Enforcement for Prom and Graduation Season

by Jonathan F. Marshall

Middlesex County, New Jersey, has renewed its initiative to combat drunk driving during the Prom and Graduation season this year. In this regard, periodic checkpoints shall be set up throughout Middlesex County during the month of May and June. The target locations for the DWI roadblocks shall coincide with the prom and graduation schedules throughout the County.

The DUI detail shall be comprised of local police officers and members of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office Vehicular Fatality Team. The program is over two decades old and is funded through a grant from the State. The program appears to have been successful in preventing alcohol related deaths insofar as there have been no such incidents in the County during the Prom and Graduation season for quite a time period.

Our DWI attorneys have occasion to represent many underage motorist every year in drunk driving cases. The pivotal thing that most of the public fails to understand is that NJ law has a no tolerance policy for alcohol consumption by minors. The result is a New Jersey Underage drinking and driving law which is triggered when a motorist under the age of 21 has any alcohol in his system whatsoever.

April 16, 2009

Another DWI Checkpoint Scheduled for Middletown NJ

by Jonathan F. Marshall

It seems that the Monmouth County DWI Task Force has an affinity for Middletown NJ. The organization has scheduled another DWI checkpoint in the municipality. This is at least the second such roadblock in the municipality. We can only assume that the prior roadblock proved successful insofar as the same location has been selected in Monmouth County.

The checkpoint is scheduled for Friday night through Saturday morning. The DWI detail is intended to detect drivers who are operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and shall run from 11:00 p.m. through 3:00 a.m. on Route 35 North. Representatives of the Task Force and the Middletown Police shall test individuals in the parking lot of Hudson City Savings Bank.

A prerequisite to conducting a valid roadblock in NJ is statistical data demonstrating that the location selected has a high incident of driving while intoxicated. The fact that this particular location has been selected a second time manifests that Route 35 North is ripe for DWI violations. This does not come as a shock in view of the significant number of DWI and refusal cases which our NJ DWI Defense Attorneys handle in Middletown.

April 10, 2009

DWI Alert: Sobriety Checkpoint in Marlboro, NJ

by Jonathan F. Marshall

In New Jersey, DWI checkpoints are a common method used by police to help reduce the number of alcohol-related traffic accidents and fatalities throughout the state. To maintain fairness under the law, our courts have required state, county and municipal law enforcement authorities to publish the times and locations of future sobriety roadblocks. It is our opinion, however, that this information is not always provided in the most convenient or accessible fashion.

We believe that if the public knew about the times/locations of these checkpoints in advance, they would be more likely to stay off the road during those hours, ensuring their own safety and contributing to that of other drivers. Because of this, we are posting the following information:

DWI Checkpoint in Marlboro
Starting tonight, April 10, and continuing through the morning hours of April 11, the Monmouth County DWI Taskforce, in cooperation with the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, will be operating a DWI checkpoint adjacent to the northbound lanes of Route 9. The Marlboro Police Department, along with members from the task force, will pull vehicles over into the New York Sports Club parking lot to detect any vehicles being operated by drivers under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. This announcement is based on information provided by Brielle Police Chief and task force coordinator, Michael W. Palmer.