Checkpoint gets impaired drivers off the road

For nearly four hours Saturday night into Sunday morning, the eastbound off ramp of Exit 63 of the Long Island Expressway was a stopping point for hundreds of drivers.

"Welcome to the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office DWI checkpoint!" Deputy Sheriff Robert Howard told drivers who were stopped at the exit in Medford. They were chosen by a random pattern meant to ensure the checkpoint would pass constitutional muster.

Some were allowed to drive off without speaking to a deputy. But 404 were sent to wait in their vehicles in a queue between orange cones, where a deputy would shine a flashlight into their faces, check their papers and, if the drivers displayed signs of intoxication, administer a sobriety test.

One driver slid off her high-heeled boots as she readied for the test, a heel-to-toe walk along a yellow line on the pavement. Next came the breath test.

"Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow!" Deputy Sheriff Mike Kern coached.

The woman, 40, of Farmingville, finished, slipped the boots back on and was handcuffed and arrested on a charge of drunken driving: Authorities said her breath test yielded a 0.13 blood-alcohol content, well above the state's 0.08 limit.

Inside her SUV was a plastic bag containing a six-pack of Mike's Hard Lemonade, which appeared to be unopened.

She was one of four drivers arrested during the checkpoint, which started at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday and ended at 3:30 a.m. Sunday.

The sheriff's office picked Exit 63 because it's a high-traffic area with plenty of room for deputies to set up the cones, establish the test area and park the vehicle where they process the drivers who are arrested, said Deputy Sheriff Lt. Nicholas Migliore.

Shortly before the woman's arrest, around 3 a.m., a smiling man driving a beat-up maroon Chevy SUV stumbled through his heel-to-toe test.

Told to walk the yellow line and count to nine, the man, 64, of Centereach, decided at one point to stomp at a fast pace. He stumbled off the line and giggled.

He recorded 0.11 on the breath test, deputies said, and was arrested.

Most drivers given the tests passed, including a man deputies saw shoving breath mints into his mouth. He wasn't close to legal intoxication.

Two marijuana-related arrests were made, one on suspicion of driving while ability impaired by drugs and another for possession.

The first, a Wantagh man, 22, sat in a mobile holding cell as he was questioned by Kern, a former New York City cop.

"Will you submit to a blood test?" Kern asked, hoping to secure evidence.

"A needle?" the young man asked nervously. Yes, Kern said.

The young man consented, and a short time later, a medic would arrive to draw blood.

"Relax, relax," Kern told the young man, whose pulse was racing. "This isn't the crime of the century here. You made a mistake . . . We got you off the road. That's all I care about."