Rolling with the DUI enforcement team

Alaska State Trooper: ‘Freezing rain and impaired drivers is a recipe for a fatal'

January 8, 2006

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - On Dec. 23, freezing rain glazed roads as Sgt. Steve Adams drove his cruiser west on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway at the start of his night shift on the Friday before Christmas Eve. Adams, part of the Alaska State Troopers' DUI enforcement team, made a grim prediction.

&#8220Freezing rain and impaired drivers is a recipe for a fatal,” Adams told a ride-along companion in his squad car that night.

Until Jan. 2, a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration grant paid for extra patrols to keep highways safe during the holidays.

Under the grant, Palmer troopers worked an extra 122 hours, made six DUI arrests and issued 120 citations. Palmer police worked an extra 107 hours and made four arrests for DUI and one arrest for felony DUI and issued 72 citations, while Wasilla police worked an extra 28.5 hours, made two DUI arrests and issued five citations, according to statistics released by troopers.

Shortly after the stroke of midnight, Adams heard a fellow trooper radio a stop of someone driving on the wrong side of the road. Adams was already nearby and swung by to assist.

At the Meadow Lakes Fire Station, Trooper Shayne Calt had pulled over Charles Hintsala, 44, of Wasilla, who wasn't doing well with the field sobriety test. And it wasn't for lack of practice.

Hintsala, according to court records, was most recently arrested for driving under the influence and driving on a suspended license in September. He pleaded no contest to the charges in November, and, on Dec. 9, reported to the Cordova Center to serve his jail sentence.

According to information radioed by dispatch to Adams and Calt, another charge of DUI was lodged against Hintsala in February, but had been dismissed. This stop would still be the third DUI for Hintsala since 1996, so if the troopers determined he was above the legal limit of .08 breath-alcohol level, Hintsala would be booked for felony DUI.

Adams used his cell phone to call one of Hintsala's friends, telling her that if she was sober, she should come by and take Hintsala's 2000 Ford F-250.

Adams made a point of asking the friend if she was sober, he said, because quite often, the friend who comes to the rescue also gets arrested for DUI.

When it quickly became clear Hintsala couldn't pass the field tests, Adams called the friend back.

&#8220He's blotto,” Adams told her. &#8220The truck has to be towed, so you can stay home.”

Trooper Calt took Hintsala to Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility and called a magistrate, who set bail at $3,000.

Hintsala refused to blow into the Datamaster, a machine that analyzes a person's breath-alcohol content, adding a refusal charge to the DUI charge. Calt would be busy on this case for two or three hours before he could get back on the road.

Adams stayed with the pickup until a tow truck from Matanuska Towing and Recovery arrived to haul it away. Adams took a tool belt, nail gun and other valuables out of the open pickup bed, locked them in the cab of the truck and counted up the empty beer cans and bottles he saw in the cab.

&#8220He said, ‘Merry Christmas' when we put him in the back of the car,” Adams said. &#8220We get that a lot. People think it's our fault, want us to feel guilty about it. But they're driving impaired on the same roads as my family. So don't even start with a guilt trip on me.”

Adams was back on the road in about an hour. He made many stops, found several drivers with expired tags, no proof of insurance, no tail pipes and such.

Troopers on Adams' shift arrested four drunken drivers, but no one Adams stopped was driving drunk, so he considered it a good night.

&#8220There wasn't a fatal,” he said.

More importantly, there were no alcohol-related fatalities in the Mat-Su this holiday season, trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson said.

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.