Crime & Safety
Wellesley Police Make First Arrest of Thanksgiving Week
Holiday parties already have begun, the WPD says, and motorists should be on the lookout for impaired drivers.
On Saturday night, Natick police notified the WPD of an incoming car traveling along Route 9 that was behaving erratically. Local officers located the vehicle and observed it alternately straddling the center line and drifting toward the shoulder of the road.
They stopped the car and smelled alcohol on the breath of the driver, Pamela Lyn Stanley, 49, of 53 Crosby Road in Chestnut Hill. Stanley, eyes bloodshot, struggled to produce her license and registration, according to a police report, and slurred her speech when answering questions.
She failed three field sobriety tests and was arrested, then bailed.
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"It's business as usual," Wellesley police spokeswoman Lt. Marie Cleary said of Thanksgiving week, "but we are aware that people are already holding holiday parties, so we are on the lookout for drunk drivers."
Cleary said she encourages motorists to watch for impaired drivers, noting that OUI arrests result not only from police patrols but also from civilian reports.
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In Massachusetts, 16,274 people were arrested for drunk driving in 2008, the most recent year for which statistics were available from the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Nationwide, 179 people died in drunk driving accidents over Thanksgiving weekend that year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"We also see drunk driving earlier in the day," Cleary said, "because people are driving home from parties, not just home from bars late at night."
