Prosecutors in Fairbanks have charged an Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities plow driver with drunken driving on the job.
According to Alaska state troopers, 42-year-old Kevin Glynn was drunkenly driving a road grader on Johansen Expressway about 5 a.m. on Halloween. Troopers were notified by Glynn’s foreman, according to a daily dispatch.
In Alaska, road graders are frequently used to plow snow.
Online court records show Glynn has been charged with three misdemeanors related to the arrest and is scheduled to be arraigned in court on Nov. 8.
A spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Public Safety said he “would characterize arrests like this as exceedingly rare.”
According to an affidavit submitted Friday at Fairbanks District Court, an off-duty trooper stopped on the expressway on Halloween morning to block traffic as DOT crews pulled a grader from a roadside ditch.
The foreman told the trooper he was concerned that the driver was drunk. The driver, identified as Glynn in the affidavit, first said he hadn’t consumed alcohol since “a couple of years ago,” then changed to “maybe yesterday.”
Glynn failed a roadside sobriety test, and a breath test showed him as having a breath alcohol level of 0.245, more than three times the state’s legal limit.
Danielle Tessen, communications manager for DOT, responded by email to a series of questions, saying that DOT performs random drug and alcohol tests for all employees who hold commercial driver’s licenses.
“We also train our staff to recognize signs of impairment and what steps to take to report concerns. On October 31, 2024, our personnel followed our ‘Signs and Symptoms’ training, and reported concerning behavior, as required by department training and policy. The incident is now with law enforcement and human resources,” she said.
The department did not answer a question asking why Glynn was not caught before he began driving.
“Our operators do critical work to maintain safe and reliable transportation across Alaska every day. The department will continue to provide them the support they need to be the most effective snow removal team in the state. Occurrences like this are exceedingly rare,” Tessen said.