Crime & Safety

Another Drunk Driver Clocked At More Than 100 Mph On Route 208, Cops Say

Chief: Incidents like this "will not be tolerated in Wyckoff."

For the second time in two months, cops have arrested a drunk driver who they allege was driving at dangerously high speeds on Route 208, said.   

Patrolman Kevin Pinches was monitoring traffic with a radar gun on Saturday at 2:25 a.m when he clocked a vehicle traveling northbound on Route 208 at 103 mph.

Pinches pursued the speeding vehicle and observed the driver straddling the shoulder and right lane, according to a police report.

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The vehicle exited the highway and was stopped on Russell Avenue where the driver, Steven M. Kampschmidt, 25, was arrested for DWI.

Following a breath test at police headquarters, the Franklin Lakes resident was charged with driving while intoxicated, speeding, reckless driving and other charges.

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Kampschmidt was released to his father and is scheduled to appear in municipal court on May 16.

This is the second recent DWI arrest on Route 208 where the individual was doing in excess of 100 mph.

"Drunk driving a car at this speed is the equivalent of aiming a weapon down the highway and subjecting every other motorist on the road to extreme danger," Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox said. "It will not be tolerated in Wyckoff. It is completely reckless behavior."

Drunk drivers put many other at grave risk, Fox said.  

"Besides the other motorists he endangers, my officers subject themselves to danger by having to drive at very high speeds to catch these idiots," Fox said. "Fortunately nobody got injured, and Patrolman Pinches did a fantastic job in getting a reckless, high speed driving drunk off our roadways."

In the incident in April when he was arrested by police early Sunday, authorities said.

The incident came just weeks after  that killed a 24-year-old North Haledon man.

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