Defending Against the Holiday Drunk Driving
With the holiday season fast approaching, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department got an early Christmas gift when they received a three-year, $874,852 state grant as an aid to their efforts to curb drunk driving.
The grant couldn’t have come at a better time as the holiday’s festivities also bring about parties and events with an unlimited supply of booze – after all, alcohol is most certainly a staple in office Christmas parties.
As a pre-emptive move against the increased number of drunk drivers this season, the grant money will be used to pay overtime compensation for deputies to staff checkpoints, extra patrols, warrant searches, and court stings.
This will largely be implemented in the Sheriff Department’s 12 contract cities which are mostly in South County.
Aside from a 17-day winter holiday enforcement campaign from Dec. 18 to Jan. 3, DUI enforcements will be held on the following holidays:
• Super Bowl Sunday
• St. Patrick’s Day
• Cinco de Mayo
• Independence Day
• Memorial Day weekends
An estimated number of 36 people are killed every day by drunk drivers and according to the National Highway and Safety Administration’s (NHTSA), more than 30 percent of 35,000 people killed in car accidents were alcohol-related deaths.
California has seen a 9 percent decrease in the number of DUI fatalities but keeping the numbers down is always a challenge.
The increased presence of law enforcement this holiday, aside from California’s strict DUI laws certainly sheds a whole new meaning to the Christmas jingle which goes, “He knows when you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness’ sake.”
Tags: car accidents
