DUI and Sobriety Check Points in Ocean City

In Ocean City, checkpoints are a commonly used tactic to catch drivers who are operating a motor vehicle under the influence. As a result it’s important to understand your legal rights when approaching a checkpoint and how law enforcement can legally use what they find at a checkpoint against you.

With this in mind, the following is information provided by Ocean City DUI lawyer Angie DiPietro on sobriety checkpoints. To learn more about your rights or to discuss your case if you’ve been accused of driving under the influence, call and schedule a free consultation today.

Do Ocean City Law Enforcement Officer’s Heavily Enforce DUI Laws?

Absolutely, and that is largely because it is in keeping with that whole atmosphere of Ocean City as  a family resort. They want people to feel that they and their families are safe when they bring them down to vacation in Ocean City.

So during the summer months the coastal highway is highly enforced by the Ocean City Police Department looking for suspected drunk drivers. And that will include officers essentially being right outside of bars and clubs as they are closing for the evening.

Ocean City has several different taxi services. They also have a municipal bus system that runs constantly. And it’s very cheap to be able to take the bus. And so they feel that they are offering many alternatives to getting in your vehicle and driving.

And so if you decide to drive and you’ve had anything drink, you are running a huge risk driving down coastal highway.

DUI Checkpoints

As for DUI checkpoints, they are not common on coastal highway within the city. There are more issues of sobriety checkpoints outside of Ocean City. For example, on Route 50, which is one of those ways to get into Ocean City, there are checkpoints there several times a year.

But I don’t believe I’ve ever seen them or heard of them having any sort of checkpoint on coastal highway. Probably because from a logistical standpoint, there’s no way that they could do it. The traffic would be just much too congested if they did that.

The Route 90 bridge also will have sobriety check points from time to time. Those two ways to get into Ocean City, Routes 90 and 50, roads merge into one at a certain point.

So they usually would have checkpoint located west of where those roads come together so that they would be looking for drivers that were leaving Ocean City from the route 90 bridge or coming from the route 50 area.