Making the rounds to prevent DWI-related accidents
A little past 11:15 p.m.
The amber glow of a bottle of liquor is the first detail Nassau police officer Kyle Poppe notices after speeding to the scene of an overturned car.
Getting out, he is overwhelmed by the smell of liquor permeating the night air. Glass from a broken bottle of wine litters the road. An intact bottle of Jose Cuervo gold tequila stands inches from a black Ford sedan teetering on its driver's side.
Emergency service police officers and firefighters are already prying open the roof with hydraulic shears known as the Jaws of Life. A woman is trapped inside.
Lately, during long overnight tours, Poppe's mind drifts to Officer Kenneth Baribault, who was struck by a DWI suspect on the Long Island Expressway in May.
Rescuers say she's breathing.
A crowd is gathered on North Long Beach Road, near the corner of McDermott Road, on the border of Rockville Centre and South Hempstead. Nestled in the grass is an another bottle: an unopened Monte Alban 100 percent agave tequila.
"You smell it, right?" Poppe asks. "You don't know if it's broken bottles or if she's been drinking. Is she on her way to a party?"
It's the Thursday night start of the July Fourth weekend. Poppe is a few hours into his 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. highway patrol shift. Poppe, 32, is on the sobriety enforcement team. He knows that at this time, many holiday revelers are still just getting ready to head out.
Watching rescuers pull out the woman trapped behind the steering wheel is a volunteer South Hempstead firefighter who happened to be driving behind the Ford that crashed into a telephone pole.
"She had her seat belt on," says Adam Sadler, 23. "She was breathing. I checked her pulse. She had a rapid pulse. She was unconscious for about five minutes."
As the woman is strapped into a stretcher, her left arm bloody, Sadler explains that he pulled out several bottles of tequila from the backseat. An officer carries her wallet, cell phone and insurance cards.
A bit of debate between First Precinct officers and Rockville Centre police about jurisdiction ends when someone points out a nearby sign indicating the start of the village.
12:10 a.m.
Resuming his patrol, Poppe heads to Barnum Island, where a cluster of bars is nestled between Island Park and Long Beach. Three young high-heeled women in skimpy dresses link arms as they stumble across Austin Boulevard.
Poppe, with 11 years on the job, explains the monotony that comes with DWI patrol. "I do loops," he says, making yet another U-turn on Austin, eyes scanning the road for telltale signs of drunken driving: weaving, speeding, lights off.
12:35 a.m.
"We're gonna stop this lady," he says, following a woman driving a black Hyundai Sonata. "She went out of her lane a couple of times."
Towering over the short woman as they stand near a Shell Rapid Lube car wash, Poppe tells her to follow his pen with her eyes -- up and down, side to side.
He sends her on her way and heads back to his car. "She's OK," he says. "As soon as I spoke to her I smelled an odor of alcohol on her breath." The woman told him she had a glass of wine at dinner an hour earlier. Poppe determined she had no trouble walking from her car.
Over the next few hours, Poppe conducts several similar stops. One man swerves in a Ford Explorer, then suddenly slows to 15 mph. Poppe conducts the eye-pen test. Then he tells the driver to lift one leg, holding it six inches from the ground while counting. Poppe has the driver walk in a straight line and blow into a Breathalyzer, which shows he's under the legal limit at 0.04. Poppe tells him to drive more carefully and lets him go.
Poppe, a practicing attorney who attended Hofstra University Law School part time while working as a police officer, is a stickler for procedure.
When he sees swerving, he'll follow for a bit, making sure there isn't a reasonable explanation for the erratic driving, such as a driver retrieving something that fell to the floor.
He continues to make loops through Island Park, Oceanside, North Long Beach, Rockville Centre and East Rockaway -- hotspots, he says, of alcohol-related activity.
Lately, during long overnight tours, Poppe's mind drifts to Officer Kenneth Baribault, who was struck by a DWI suspect on the Long Island Expressway in May. Poppe thinks about the excuses he hears from people he pulls over. Some say they were less drunk than their companions, so they drove. Others downplay the amount of liquor consumed. "They can be falling all over themselves and they'll say 'two drinks.'"
"After Ken got hit, there were a lot less cars on the road after they started to post the pictures on the news and whatnot," Poppe says of the Nassau district attorney's campaign of posting DWI mug shots, known as the Wall of Shame.
Poppe says the campaign is a deterrent for some, but wonders what will stop the lifelong drinker who has spent years driving home from local bars.
2:34 a.m.
Poppe assists two officers struggling with a man yelling expletives on Lawson Boulevard in Oceanside. He's handcuffed and threatens to kill the officers. His speech is slurred, and Poppe says he reeks of alcohol.
4:15 a.m.
The bars have closed and even the valet parkers have headed home. Poppe declares the evening a light one. "It's a four-day weekend, maybe they don't want to go nuts tonight," he says.
Then Poppe spots a black Nissan Altima blow a red light, making a sharp left from Hempstead Turnpike onto Conti Square in East Meadow. When Poppe pulls the car over at Erma and Barbara drives, out stumbles a skinny teenager wearing glasses and a Cookie Monster T-shirt. "I got my license," he slurs.
Poppe puts him through the full battery of tests -- the pen, the leg lift, the straight line, the Breathalyzer. The driver is only 18 and is not legally allowed to consume the four beers he tells Poppe he drank.
The teen is handcuffed as his wide-eyed passenger watches. An elderly man from the neighborhood wanders over, complaining about the flashing patrol car lights.
Birds are starting to chirp and the sky brightens as Poppe splays paperwork on the trunk of his car, copying information from the teen's license.
A tow truck arrives to impound the Altima, and the passenger is sent on his way home on foot.
Poppe inspects the inside of the car and pulls out a half-empty 40-ounce bottle of Coors Light covered in a Yankees jersey beer cozy.
The East Meadow teen was charged with DWI with a blood-alcohol content level of more than 0.08. Because he's under 19, his mug shot will not go on the Wall of Shame.
5:15 a.m.
Poppe's shift is over as he drives away with the teen in the backseat.
At about 6:20 a.m., Poppe finds out from Rockville Centre police that the woman in the turnover crash, later identified as Luz Valverde, 45, of Island Park, was charged with DWI.
Posted Sunday, July 6, 2008
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