HOLLIDAYSBURG - Blair Township Police Chief Randall Lingenfelter was on Catfish Ridge when he spotted a car with only one headlight working.
He quickly turned around to catch up to the driver and pull her over.
Lingenfelter was participating in a recent anti-driving under the influence operation, based in Newry. There was no DUI arrest this time.
When she was stopped, the driver, a young woman with children in the car, jumped out of her Nissan Sentra, raised the hood and quickly dropped it. The movement led to the right headlight turning on.
"It was a loose wire," Lingenfelter said as he returned to his car to write out an equipment warning.
He and a second patrol officer were shut out for DUIs April 10 along with the rest of the Blair County DUI Task Force, which also set up a sobriety checkpoint on old Route 220.
It was one of the few times this year that Blair County police failed to make a DUI arrest.
As of March 31, police arrested 183 people for DUI in Blair County - an increase of about 11.6 percent, according to the state police Uniform Crime Report. Ninety-three of those arrests occurred in Altoona.
Blair County is on track for more than 730 DUI arrests for 2009, potentially the most for the crime this decade. Officers made 605 DUI arrests in 2008.
Participation in aggressive driver enforcement has helped fuel an increase in DUI arrests this year in Greenfield Township.
Township officers arrested 23 drivers for DUI by the end of March. During the same time last year, they made just seven arrests, according to the Uniform Crime Report.
"Because of our participation, our officers have become more aggressive in enforcing the DUI law. We have a zero tolerance policy for DUIs. If you're going to drink and drive, don't come to Greenfield Township," township Chief Ron Givler said.
The average blood-alcohol level in 2003 was 0.19 percent, about two times the former legal limit of 0.10 percent. In 2004, the legal limit was reduced to 0.08 percent. The average was 0.18 percent in 2008, according to state court data.
Officers made most of their arrests Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, according to the data, with most people arrested between midnight and 4 a.m.
Christopher Cohn of the DUI task force said the statewide data show that Blair County doesn't stand out when compared to other counties.
"That said, alcohol has been and remains the socially acceptable drug of choice," Cohn said. "Alcohol causes more misery, more human illness and death and more property damage and destruction, but we still accept it as socially acceptable and use it to self-medicate.
"It's an issue that we have yet to come to grips with. We know there is a negative side to it. We don't accept how dark and deep that negative side can be."
Cohn cited several reasons for excessive alcohol use, including the economic downturn and people medicating to forget the pain of personal problems.
"But there are people who use alcohol in a socially acceptable way. It's not that it can't be done," he said.
There has been greater awareness by law enforcement of the seriousness of the alcohol problem. Cohn said a handful of officers who are well aware of the problem and its consequences have stepped forward and are "zero tolerance oriented."
Spotting a malfunctioning headlight or broken windshield is one way officers may make a vehicle stop that could lead to a DUI arrest. Most Blair County DUI arrests in 2008 occurred either from a vehicle crash or from a careless driving, or weaving, violation.
"[Weaving] has to be at least a couple times to create probable cause - two or three times over the center line or fog line," Lingenfelter said.
Wildly "off" driving speeds, such as going 25 mph in a 45 mph zone or going very fast through a similar zone, also will attract an officer's attention, he said.
During the recent operation, Lingenfelter later sat watching traffic at the Wye Switches intersection.
A driver of a Dodge Stratus drove past with one headlight not working. Lingenfelter quickly moved out with his emergency lights flashing.
The woman pulled over on Route 22, just outside of Duncansville.
Lingenfelter smelled tobacco coming from the car, but nothing that would lead him to giving the woman a field sobriety test.
"PA [registration] is current and valid," a 911 dispatcher told Lingenfelter.
The driver also received a warning card, which she would have to send back to township police or drop it off at the station proving that she had the headlight problem fixed.
Mirror Staff Writer Mark Leberfinger is at 946-7462.
