Police set up checkpoints along N.C. line for holiday

CHESAPEAKE

Watch out for flashing blue lights this weekend.

Traditionally, Labor Day weekend means just that for police: They will be out en masse, laboring to enforce traffic laws and looking for drunken drivers.

With an estimated 776,880 Virginians expected to drive 50 miles or more between Thursday and Monday, according to AAA Tidewater Virginia, there's a reason police choose this weekend to step up patrols. Although that figure is down 2.3 percent from this time last year, it's still a lot more cars on the road than on a typical summer weekend.

"There's so much more traffic at this time of year," said Mary Ann Rayment, a spokeswoman for the Highway Safety Office at the state's Department of Motor Vehicles.

And because of Hurricane Irene, she added, "people here have cabin fever. People want to go out and about."

Chesapeake police kicked off the holiday weekend Thursday morning by conducting a "Border to Border" checkpoint on U.S. 17. This is the 13th year for the program.

The checkpoint involved Virginia and North Carolina law enforcement agencies working both sides of the state line. Thursday's checks netted 125 traffic offenses.

Thirty-five of those were for speeding - 27 in Chesapeake and eight in North Carolina; 64 tickets were issued for vehicle equipment; six were issued for driving on a suspended license; and 45 were for other violations, according to figures provided by Rayment.

On the Virginia side, law enforcement from the city, the state's Department of Motor Vehicles, Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Portsmouth conducted inspections on 13 commercial tractor-trailers. Two trucks were taken out of service for faulty brakes, including one that had no brakes.

The scrutiny will continue in the city throughout the weekend, as an additional five to eight law enforcement officers will be specifically looking for drunken drivers, said Chesapeake Police Lt. Johnny Day.

"We offer that overtime to the officers who have shown a history of making more DUI arrests than other officers," he said.

Their overtime is paid for with a $23,900 grant provided by the DMV.

"We are practicing zero tolerance for speed and DUI enforcement, and it's for the safety of the public," Day said.

So far this year, there have been 14 traffic fatalities in Chesapeake.

Four of those were alcohol-related, Day said.

By comparison, there were seven fatalities in all of 2010.

State Police also will focus on catching drunken drivers this weekend and will beef up the number of troopers on the roads.

In 2009 and 2010, 13 people died during the Labor Day weekend on Virginia roads, according to the State Police.

Last year, State Police arrested 132 drunken drivers and cited 8,836 people for speeding.

In Virginia Beach, spokesman Adam Bernstein said most officers in the patrol and detective units will work this weekend enforcing traffic laws. Beach police also plan to set up checkpoints to catch impaired drivers.

Their efforts, as in past years, will focus on the Oceanfront, where people are expected to pour in for the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon and American Music Festival.

"We have traffic units, especially on the Oceanfront working busy intersections, monitoring pedestrian traffic," he said. "The Virginia Beach area is a destination for holiday weekends, and we like that. We prepare for that."

Veronica Gonzalez, (757) 222-5208, veronica.gonzalez@pilotonline.com