Police Say Greene County Man Racked Up 26 Tickets, Including DWI

A local man, who police say was driving at nearly three times the legal limit, caused quite a ruckus on the road over the weekend. Officials say the 30-year-old suspect was driving while highly intoxicated when he tried to pass a vehicle in front of him in a no-passing zone. This set off a chain reaction of events, as the suspect sideswiped the other vehicle as he passed, knocking the other driver into oncoming traffic.

Police say the suspect racked up quite an impressive amount of tickets from this one incident.

Police say the accident happened early Saturday afternoon in the Town of Saugerties. Police also say they responded to a call on Route 212 that the suspect had hit the other vehicle and then drove off. Police later found the Catskill man heading eastbound on Ulster Avenue. From there, he was stopped and issued a whopping 26 tickets.

Officials say he is being charged with DWI, Aggravated DWI, Leaving the scene of a PDAA, and a number of other violations.

Saugerties Police said in a press release that the suspect submitted to a chemical test which established his BAC to be .23%.

Could New Technology Prevent Cases Like This From Happening?  

Will all new vehicles on Hudson Valley roads be equipped with built-in technology to stop drunk drivers? There have already been ignition interlock devices for some time for those who have been convicted of drunk driving. There are also infrared cameras in some models that monitor a motorist's behavior behind the wheel. But Congress feels that is not enough, and now they're pushing all automakers for more action to cut back on drunk driving-related fatalities.

Could this new technology be coming to places like the Hudson Valley as early as 2026?

Yahoo says that this is all part of the massive trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden is expected to sign. This would call on all automakers to include some sort of technology in all new vehicles. The bill would require a new system that would “passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired.”  But how exactly? One principal mobility analyst says we'll need something beyond breathalyzers.

The NHTSA says that an average of around 10,000 Americans die every year due to drunk driving-related accidents. Some states have already lowered the legal limit, and some lawmakers in New York have already pushed that the state follows suit.