On September 2nd, members of the Calvert County
Sheriff’s Office will be conducting sobriety checkpoints in an effort to remove
impaired drivers from Calvert County roadways. These particular checkpoints are being
conducted in honor of Montgomery County Police Officer Noah Leotta, who died on
December 10, 2015 as a result of injuries sustained after being struck by an
impaired driver on December 3, 2015. At the time of this tragic incident
Officer Leotta was on-duty actively working a DUI enforcement initiative and
was outside of his patrol vehicle on a traffic stop when he was struck. Officer
Noah Leotta died trying to prevent the exact crime that killed him -- removing
drunk and drugged drivers from Maryland’s roadways. Members of the Leotta family will meet with Calvert
County Sheriff’s Office Deputies prior to the checkpoints to honor his memory
and thank them for their efforts to save lives.
Effective October 1, 2016, Noah’s Law, named for Officer
Leotta, will protect Marylanders and make our roadways safer by significantly
expanding Maryland’s Ignition Interlock Program to help keep impaired drivers from
getting behind the wheel. An ignition interlock is a device that prevents a
vehicle from starting when it detects a certain level of alcohol on the
driver’s breath.
Calvert County Sheriff Mike Evans stated “The majority of
Calvert County citizens travel in motor vehicles daily and our priority is to
keep them safe during their travels. Impaired
driving arrests in Calvert County have increased significantly in 2016. Unfortunately,
fatal traffic crashes are also trending towards an increase from 2015. Traffic
enforcement will continue to be a priority in an effort to keep our roadways
safe and our citizens safer.”
DUI Sobriety Checkpoints are High Visibility initiatives
setup on roadways with alcohol related arrest and/or crash history. The
checkpoints are designed to be educational initiatives and assist law
enforcement with removing impaired drivers from roadways. When entering a sobriety
checkpoint every vehicle is stopped and a deputy contacts the operator. If
there are no signs of impairment the operator of the vehicle will be given an
informational brochure about impaired driving and underage drinking. If there are signs of impairment, the vehicle
will be escorted to the designated testing area and the driver will perform
standardized field sobriety tests to determine their impairment.
