Holiday DUI Crackdown Begins Today
RIVERSIDE -Beginning Friday, law enforcement agencies across Riverside County will be ramping up patrols to snare drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs as part of a two-week holiday crackdown.
The “Avoid the 30” campaign, named for the local and state law enforcement agencies that operate in the county, will start Friday evening and continue to Jan. 3.
The campaign is part of a “Drunk Driving: Over the Limit, Under Arrest,” crackdown planned statewide and will coincide with the California Highway Patrol’s “maximum enforcement” operations during Christmas and New Year’s weekends, when 80 percent of the CHP’s officers will hit the streets to bust lawbreakers.
Locally,checkpoints will be conducted on the following dates:
December 18 – Palm Desert Police
December 19 – Rancho Mirage Police
January 2 – Indian Wells Police
“We continue to see far too many people suffer debilitating injuries and loss of their loved-ones as a result of impaired driving,” said Riverside police Chief Russ Leach. “This careless disregard for human life must stop. To help ensure that this happens, the Avoid … partners are dedicated to arresting impaired drivers.
“We ask everyone: Report Drunk Drivers. Call 911.”
During the 2008 holiday period, three people died in alcohol-related crashes in Riverside County, according to Karen Haverkamp, Riverside police traffic bureau supervisor and Avoid the 30 coordinator.
She said 491 people were arrested on suspicion of DUI.
The campaign, paid for with federal tax dollars, will combine saturation patrols and DUI/drivers’s license checkpoints to catch impaired drivers, according to Haverkamp.
Random checkpoints are planned in Desert Hot Springs, Hemet, Riverside and Temecula.
“Drunk driving is simply not worth the risk,” said Christopher Murphy, director of the state Office of Traffic Safety. “No only do you risk killing yourself or someone else, but the trauma and financial costs of a crash or an arrest for impaired driving can be significant … Remember, if you are over the limit, you are under arrest.”
