Community Corner: LAPD Police Department Targets Impaired Drivers with Checkpoint

What:    Sobriety & Driver’s License Checkpoint

When:    Saturday, February 18, 2012, 6 P.M. to

Sunday, February 19, 2012, 1 A.M.

Where:   Imperial Highway between Main Street and San Pedro Street

Why:  Checkpoints are placed in locations that have the greatest opportunity for achieving drunk and drugged driving deterrence and provide the greatest safety for officers and the public.  Officers will be contacting drivers passing through the checkpoint looking for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment.  Drivers caught driving impaired can expect jail, license suspension, and insurance increases, as well as fines, fees, DUI classes, court probation and other expenses.

All too often members of our community are senselessly injured or killed on local roadways by impaired drivers. “Over the course of the past year, DUI-related collisions have claimed twelve lives and injured 825 of our friends and neighbors in Los Angeles,” said Lieutenant Ron Katona, Traffic Coordination Section.

This DUI/Driver’s License checkpoint is an effort to reduce those tragedies, as well as insuring drivers have a valid driver’s license.  A major component of these checkpoints is to increase awareness of the dangers of impaired driving and to encourage sober designated drivers.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), checkpoints have provided the most effective documented results of any of the DUI enforcement strategies, while also yielding considerable cost savings of $6 for every $1 spent.

Funding for this operation is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

Report Drunk Drivers. Call 911!

This information was provided by the LAPD.