SANATOGA PA – Lower Pottsgrove police officers spent 40 overtime hours last month (June 2011) on Driving Under the Influence (DUI) checkpoint duty, township Police Chief Michael Shade reported Thursday night (July 7), with all of its $1,980 cost paid for by the federal or state governments. He can guarantee they got their money’s worth, too.

A checkpoint run by Shade’s force June 10 (Friday) in the 3000 block of East High Street, near the Sanatoga interchange of U.S. Route 422 and the Turkey Hill convenience store there, netted no fewer than six DUI arrests. One of those, he told the Board of Commissioners as part of his monthly report, was a fourth-time offender. But wait!, there’s more.

Officers also:

• Stopped one driver for driving while under a DUI license suspension, and a second for driving under license suspension on a different charge;
• Found six vehicles they stopped had state inspections that were expired, and discovered a seventh with an expired registration;
• Ticketed two drivers for failure to obey traffic control devices;
• Pulled off two drivers who were not licensed;
• Issued a warning for a faulty brake light;
• Seized a registration for a vehicle on which the insurance had been canceled;
• Impounded two vehicles involved in earlier traffic violations; and
• Recovered one vehicle that was being used without the owner’s authorization. Criminal charges in that incident are pending in the borough of Norristown.

“That was a very busy night,” Shade said in retrospect.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ July 7 meeting):

• At Township DUI Check, They Got What They Paid For
• Police Radio Discussion Possible In Township’s Meeting