Deadly Labor Day weekend on RI roads, with spike in DUIs
By John Krinjak
Email: jkrinjak@abc6.com
Twitter: @johnkrinjakABC6
NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WLNE) — Police in Rhode Island are fed up, after one of the deadliest Labor Day weekends in recent memory–one that saw a spike in impaired driving.
"They still don’t listen to our warning and they continue to drive intoxicated," said North Kingstown Police Sgt. Don Barrington.
As of Monday night, state and local police made at least 50 DUI arrests.
On the highways, there were three fatal crashes. On I-95 in Warwick Saturday night, Dervi Pena of Providence was thrown from his motorcycle. Sunday morning, Raymond Atnip of Stoughton lost control of his bike on the s-curves on I-95 in Pawtucket. Then in Johnston, Nicholas Winfield was killed after his SUV hit a construction truck parked on the shoulder of Route 6.
"We are looking into impairment issues for each of these fatalities," said Rhode Island State Police Sgt. Greg Cunningham.
For police, it’s especially frustrating given their increased efforts to combat unsafe driving–through a highly-publicized DUI task force.
"The level of impairment of the people we arrested//their alcohol levels were pretty high," said Barrington.
And alcohol was not the only concern.
"We’re finding that there’s a lot of drugged driving out there," said Barrington.
On one hand police are thankful to get dangerous people off the road, but sickened seeing what happens when their warnings fall on deaf ears.
"Your job, your profession is to try to keep people safe//it’s extremely disheartening to have these things happen," said Cunningham.
© WLNE-TV / ABC6 2018
