Riverside County “Avoid the 30” campaign wraps up

A countywide crackdown on drunken and drug-impaired motorists will wrap up tonight after more than two weeks of increased patrols and other operations.
The end-of-summer Riverside County “Avoid the 30” campaign — named for the number of police agencies involved — got under way Aug. 17 and will conclude shortly before midnight tonight.

As of last Wednesday, 494 drivers had been arrested on suspicion of DUI,
according to Riverside police Sgt. Skip Showalter, the Avoid coordinator.
During last year’s late summer campaign, 501 people had been arrested by
this time.

Saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints have been deployed this holiday weekend in numerous locations, including Beaumont, Coachella, Hemet,
Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Temecula.

The Avoid program is part of a national campaign, “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over,” and coincided this weekend with the California Highway Patrol’s
“Maximum Enforcement Period,” during which all available CHP officers hit the
streets to nab intoxicated motorists, speeders and other traffic violators.