If you’re enjoying the holidays with a drink, the Contra Costa County anti-DUI program Avoid the 25 has a message for you: Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over. Due to the increase in drunk driving related fatalities around the holidays each year, law enforcement agencies across Contra Costa County will be actively searching for and arresting impaired drivers from December 18, 2015 to January 3, 2016.
As part of the national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement campaign period, police, sheriff and the CHP will be deploying DUI Checkpoints and countywide DUI Saturation Patrols during the upcoming 17-day DUI enforcement campaign. The city of Richmond will be conducting a DUI checkpoint on January 1, 2016. There will also be operations to target those with outstandng DUI arrest warrants and those on suspended licenses who continue to drive.
In 2013, 10,076 people were killed in crashes involving a drunk driver. In December 2013 alone, there were 733 people killed in crashes involving at least one driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher. Twenty-three of those deaths occurred on Christmas Day. California saw 98 deaths and 1,852 injuries in alcohol involved collisions in December 2013.
The California Office of Traffic Safety DDVIP (Designated Driver VIP) mobile app is now available for free download on iOS and Android devices. Launched last year, the new DDVIP app offers enhanced features, allowing users to “Map a Spot” with their current location to find DDVIP partnering establishments in their area or a “List of Spots” to search all participating establishments throughout California.
Law Enforcement emphasizes the preventable nature of drunk driving reminding everyone that all it takes is a little planning ahead. The Avoid the 25 reminds everyone to follow these simple tips to stay safe:
- Plan a safe way to get home before you attend a party. Alcohol impairs judgment, as well as reaction time. If you’re impaired, you’re more likely to choose to drive drunk.
- Designate a sober driver; take public transportation, a car service, or a call a sober friend or family member to get home.
- If you see someone you think is about to drive while impaired, take their keys and help them get home safely.
If you’re caught drinking and driving you could face jail time, fines, loss of driver’s license, towing fees, and other expenses, totaling $10,000 on average. That’s not a small price, and that doesn’t even count the heftier price you could pay: the price of your life or someone else’s.
The Avoid anti-DUI task force holiday enforcement campaign is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
4 comments
Great, a meaningless geasture that just costs the taxpayers money in police coverage and does nothing to help the problem.
By the article’s own admission there were less dui’s in December 2013 than the monthly average in 2013. Christmas, the day pointed out, was below the monthly average for December. Why is this the month we are spending extra dollars on enforcement?
DUIs are a problem, though anyone who puts any thought into it should see extra coverage in December is not a real solution, a band aid at best, and an empty gesture at worst.
Perhaps the reason DUIs have been down during recent years is because the “Avoid the 25” program has been heavily promoted during those past years and there are more checkpoints during this time of year as well. Just maybe people are being a bit more cautious and smart.
It only takes one DRUNK DRIVER to KILL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS. Anyone who doesn’t understand this isn’t very bright, or they have outstanding DUI warrants, and they’re afraid of getting pulled over.
Or maybe they understand that increased enforcement during times with lower than average enforcement is pandering to emotion and not serious about fixing the problem. If we really were serious we’d be targeting the months with higher than average infractions. Or is someone who dies in March less important than someone who dies near the holidays?
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