To combat drunk driving around the holidays, local police departments created extra shifts and paid out some overtime for more manpower during Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

The police departments in Allenstown, Pembroke and Epsom are part of a task force with Chichester and Bow police as well as the Merrimack County Sheriff’s Office to take action against drunk drivers, a move to decrease arrests and accidents, something that has caught hold nationally.

The task force got funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to run “saturated patrols” as part of their “Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.” campaign.

The extra money paid for the man hours spent on the additional patrols.

Bow police recently joined the task force, so they are not being funded for their patrols this season, but will participate with the other agencies in future saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints.

Those who behaved While most towns saw no arrests or accidents related to drinking, police chiefs agreed that’s a product of preparation on the departments’ parts and residents’ wise choices.

“Everyone was doing what they were supposed to do,” said Epsom Police Chief Wayne Preve, adding his officers made plenty of stops that yielded no drunk driving arrests.

“There were so many cops out there, you couldn’t move without getting stopped,” he joked.

In a few situations, he said, his officers stopped vehicles that had already been stopped in other towns. Being the most central town in the task force, some cars were stopped for the same infraction in two or three towns, he said.

Keeping with a yearly tradition, the snow emergency parking bans in Allenstown and Epsom were lifted on Christmas and New Year’s Eve to allow parking on the streets. This encouraged people to stay where they were in the event they were impaired, Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland said.

“We prefer that they not drive impaired if it means they have to stay where they’re at,” he said.

Pembroke residents also seemed to stay under the radar, Pembroke Police Chief Scott Lane said, adding that no arrests or accidents related to drunk driving occurred during Christmas or New Year’s.

In the 1980s, Lane said, drunk driving was much more prevalent in town.

“When I first came on the job, you made your bread and butter on DWIs,” he said, adding that amount of driving-while-intoxicated arrests in town per year has decreased to around 30 from around 100 in the 1980s. “We still have too many problems with it, but it’s still better than it used to be,” Lane said. He added the force will be out in droves during the NFL playoff season, which he said often yields more drunk drivers than the holiday season.

Those who didn’t While Candia is not a part of the task force, they do coordinate with Raymond police to provide extra patrols in their towns during the holidays, said Candia Police Chief Michael McGillen.

Candia did have two drunk driving arrests during the afternoon on New Year’s Eve, according to Sgt. Scott Gallagher. “It’s a good thing they were off the road earlier in the day,” he said.

Eric Johnson, 49, of Deerfield, was charged with one count of driving while intoxicated after a concerned resident observed him acting intoxicated in the parking lot of Ace Hardware on Raymond Road. Officer Daniel Gray responded and pulled Johnson’s vehicle over as it exited the parking lot.

During a thorough search of the vehicle, Gray found an open bottle of vodka strapped to the inside of the vehicle’s hood with a bungee cord.

Johnson refused a Breathalyzer at the scene and was taken into custody. His arraignment was scheduled for Feb. 6 in Auburn District Court.

Robin Dahlbloom, 52, also of Raymond, was stopped about an hour later for operating without headlights. Gallagher, who pulled her over, said Dahlbloom was showing signs impairment, including slurred speech and awkward motions.

“She was lethargic in her motions and evasive as far as speaking with me,” Gallagher said, adding she refused a Breathalyzer. Her court date is also scheduled for Feb. 6 in Auburn District Court.

National trends
A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study looking at the trends in holiday drunk driving from 1982 to 2005 shows increases in the number of fatal accidents involving at least one impaired driver during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

According to the study, the average number of fatal accidents during the holidays involving drunk drivers jumps from 36 during regular year to 45 around Christmas and 54 around New Year’s.

Researchers predicted that if trends held this year, accidents involving a drunk driver would kill about 430 people nationwide this holiday season.

The study also found that fatal crashes resulting from drunk driving account for about 40 percent of total fatal accidents on Christmas and New Year’s.