CHP Labor Day crackdown ends tonight

California Highway Patrol officers tonight will end a Labor Day weekend enforcement campaign focused on canvassing highways and roads throughout Riverside County to catch drunken and drug-impaired drivers, as well as other traffic violators.

The CHP’s “maximum enforcement period” got underway at 6 p.m. Friday and will conclude at 11:59 p.m.

According to the agency, all available officers from the Beaumont, Blythe, Indio, Riverside and Temecula stations deployed in a targeted crackdown that coincided with end-of-summer saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints in municipalities throughout the Inland Empire.

“Whatever causes impairment makes you an unsafe driver,” CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said. “High visibility enforcement … will help create a general deterrence and promote safer driving.”

During the 2018 Labor Day weekend, CHP officers statewide arrested 1,084 motorists on suspicion of driving under the influence, a roughly 8 percent increase from the same period in 2017. Thirty-six people died in wrecks investigated by the CHP statewide over Labor Day weekend 2018, according to the agency.

Officials said that with most CHP officers and sergeants trained as “drug recognition experts,” they have been better equipped to spot motorists under the influence of marijuana.

The holiday weekend deployment has been part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s nationwide “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” and “Drive High Get a DUI” campaigns.

California Highway Patrol officers tonight will end a Labor Day weekend enforcement campaign focused on canvassing highways and roads throughout Riverside County to catch drunken and drug-impaired drivers, as well as other traffic violators.

The CHP’s “maximum enforcement period” got underway at 6 p.m. Friday and will conclude at 11:59 p.m.

According to the agency, all available officers from the Beaumont, Blythe, Indio, Riverside and Temecula stations deployed in a targeted crackdown that coincided with end-of-summer saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints in municipalities throughout the Inland Empire.

“Whatever causes impairment makes you an unsafe driver,” CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said. “High visibility enforcement … will help create a general deterrence and promote safer driving.”

During the 2018 Labor Day weekend, CHP officers statewide arrested 1,084 motorists on suspicion of driving under the influence, a roughly 8 percent increase from the same period in 2017. Thirty-six people died in wrecks investigated by the CHP statewide over Labor Day weekend 2018, according to the agency.

Officials said that with most CHP officers and sergeants trained as “drug recognition experts,” they have been better equipped to spot motorists under the influence of marijuana.

The holiday weekend deployment has been part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s nationwide “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” and “Drive High Get a DUI” campaigns.