ADDISON COUNTY — In separate cases, Vermont State Police this past week dealt with a number of traffic accidents in Addison County, two of which resulted in people being cited for impaired driving.

The first was on April 23, when, at a little after 6 p.m., a trooper observed multiple violations on Route 7 near Lime Kiln Road in New Haven and pulled over the driver. The identified the driver as Gerald S. Posner, 64, of South Burlington, observed signs of impairment, took him to the Middlebury Police Department and cited him for driving under the influence of drugs.

After also issuing him traffic tickets that carry total fines of $487 and 4 points on his license (the tickets for driving outside his lane, driving an uninspected car and driving with an open container of pot), they released him to a sober adult.

The second DUI case arose at about a quarter after 4 p.m. on April 26, when troopers were on routine patrol in Bridport when they witnessed a motorist commit several motor vehicle infractions. Officers stopped the car near the intersection of Route 22A and Town Line Road, saw signs of impairment in driver Wyatt C. Laberge, 26, of Bridport, and cited him for driving under the influence.

State police also reported three traffic accidents that didn’t result in drunken driving charges nor any reported injuries.

On April 24 just before 2 p.m. a trooper made a traffic stop at the intersection of Route 7 and Exchange Street in Middlebury and cited Wayne N. Gorton, 72, of Bridport for driving in a careless and negligent manner on River Road in New Haven. They also issued tickets for failure to yield, following too closely and not keeping his vehicle inspection up to date.

Less than two days later at minutes before 5 a.m. on a rainy and wet April 26, police were summoned to a tractor-trailer crash on Route 22A south of Brown Road in Orwell. State police report that Ivan Hrishka, 37, of Denver, Penn., was driving a 2019 Freightliner Cascadia northbound on 22A when he fell asleep. The big rig left the northbound lane, rolled over and came to crashed onto on its passenger’s side. Although Hrishka was not injured, he did get a ticket for driving outside his lane.

The third crash came on Sunday, April 27, at around a quarter to 5 p.m. State police rushed to the one-car crash on Route 17 in West Addison. Police were told that the driver reportedly went off the road, damaged some property and then left the area in his vehicle — a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Through investigation, the identified and located the driver, who they said was David French Jr., 20, of West Addison. They cited French for leaving the scene of an accident.

In a non-vehicle related case, state police announced on April 28 that they had wrapped up a case that started back last fall. Troopers report that on Sept. 2, 2024, they began an investigation into Jonathan A. Wieman, 48, of Middlebury after receiving a report involving explicit images being posted online. They say that Wieman had posted the sexually explicit images online without the adult individual’s consent. On April 28 Wieman turned himself in at state police at the New Haven barracks, where he was cited for disclosure of sexually explicit images without consent.