Man arrested for DUI after crashing at checkpoint

An alleged drunk driver was arrested Friday night in Palm Springs after he rear-ended another vehicle at a DUI and driver’s license checkpoint.

Officers with the Palm Springs Police Department conducted the checkpoint in the 1100 block of East Tahquitz Canyon Way. While screening one of the 231 vehicles that passed through the checkpoint, officers said another vehicle drove up at a high rate of speed and caused a rear-end collision.

Nobody was injured in the crash, but officers arrested the driver, 44-year-old Palm Springs resident Gene Roy Warness, for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Warness was booked into the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.

According to police, out of the 231 vehicles screened during the checkpoint, Warness was the only one arrested for DUI, but eight other drivers were issued citations for vehicle code violations.

Funding for the checkpoint was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to the PSPD release.