1:00pm | The Long Beach Police Department Traffic Unit will be conducting a checkpoint to screen for impaired and unlicensed drivers this Saturday, February 4, 2012, from 6:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m., in the area of the west Long Beach. Checkpoints have proven to be an effective tool in reducing the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol-involved crashes, and research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted regularly.
 
Officers will be contacting drivers passing through the checkpoint for proper licensing, signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment, and will strive to delay motorists only momentarily. Drivers caught driving impaired can expect jail, license suspension, and insurance increases, as well as fines, fees, DUI classes, other expenses that can exceed $10,000.
 
“Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed 13 lives and resulted in 274 injury crashes harming 388 of our friends and neighbors,” said Sgt. Ernie Kohagura.
 
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. 
 
“Deaths from drunk and drug-impaired driving are going down in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS).  “But that still means that hundreds of our friends, family and co-workers are killed each year, along with tens of thousands who are seriously injured. We must all continue to work together to bring an end to these tragedies.  If you see a drunk driver – call 9-1-1.”
 
Funding for this checkpoint is provided to Long Beach Police Department by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the NHTSA, targeting those who still don’t heed the message to designate a sober driver.
 
For additional information please contact Long Beach Police Traffic Section Sergeant Ernie Kohagura at (562) 570-5737.