News
Although hundreds of students and townspeople floated in tubes and rafts down the Connecticut river on Saturday afternoon, the weekend greeted Dartmouth with few unusual disturbances or injuries to either sober or inebriated individuals.
At least two Dartmouth students went to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center as a result of Tubestock injuries, but according to both the Hanover and Norwich police departments, little of interest happened over the weekend.
"We didn't spend the whole weekend babysitting people who were intoxicated," Detective Lieutenant Frank Moran of Hanover said.
However, he reported that two people were taken in for protected custody because they were intoxicated -- one early Friday morning, and one on Sunday morning.
"In this particular weekend, for the most part, things didn't appear to get out of hand," Moran said, noting that other than the two cases of protective custody, the only disturbances were the arrest of a 17-year-old boy for a stolen bike part, a few car accidents and other standard complaints.
Captain Dave Rich said the Vermont side encountered no problems.
College Proctor Bob McEwen explained that the event is not endorsed or sponsored by the College, but that nevertheless, the campus department of Safety and Security takes special precautions.
"As far as I know, we didn't have any problems on our side," he said.
Three Safety and Security officers were posted along the river, covering the area from the Ledyard canoe club down to the swimming docks, which were closed for the day.
McEwen said his department has maintained a presence of officers along the shore for about eight years because in the past, "our properties have been trashed down there with alcohol and with debris." He added that, in the past, "some of the rafts that were made were torn apart and crashed into our docks."
As a result, neither students nor their rafts are technically allowed to enter or exit the river from Dartmouth's property during Tubestock.
However, he acknowledged that a few students who were "tired" were permitted to climb out of the water on the New Hampshire side of the river.
"We had a couple of alcohol related incidents," he said, but explained that the numbers of reported incidents of intoxication were similar to those of other summer weekends.
This year, Tubestock took place the weekend before Parent's weekend, unlike last year when the two coincided.
Neither weekend produced serious injury or death.
