Sobriety Shakedown Friday Night

[J’raxis 270145]

From the 2008-04-03 Manchester Express:—

Checkpoint follow-up

Manchester police on Friday, March 28, conducted a sobriety checkpoint on the west side of the Bridge Street bridge, making 106 stops and arresting three people they charged with driving under the influence, a police report said.

According to an eyewitness account by Manchester resident Jeremy Olson, police conducted checkpoints on both the Queen City Avenue Bridge and the Bridge Street bridge. Police say they only a conducted a checkpoint on Bridge Street.

Olson also said — counter to what police had said they would do last week — the checkpoints were set up to make it impossible for drivers to turn around, "In both cases, they seemed to be trying to take advantage of the lay of the road," Olson said. "The curvature of the bridge hides the checkpoint on your side of the road until you're traveling down the one-way side of the bridge with an island in between you and the other lane."

At about 11:25 p.m., on Friday, March 28, police at the Bridge Street checkpoint stopped Larry Brunelle, 56, of 18 Oakwood Lane in Goffstown, and charged him with operating under the influence after conducting an investigation, the police report says.

At about 12:45 a.m., on Saturday, March 29, police spotted a vehicle heading east over the bridge that sped up to about 70 miles per hour, the report says. An officer at the checkpoint chased the vehicle, which he found crashed into a guard rail at the off-ramp to Spring Street, the report says.

Police conducted an investigation at the scene of the crash, and subsequently arrested the driver, Kevin Coventry, 21, of 21 W. River Road, and charged him with an aggravated count of operating under the influence, the report says.

At about 1:15 a.m. on Saturday, March 29, police at the checkpoint stopped Michael Palumbo, 25, of 478 Notre Dame Ave., and charged him with operating under the influence after conducting an investigation, the police report says.