The Garden Grove and Newport Beach police departments have announced they will conduct saturation patrols today and Saturday because of expected heavy drinking for Cinco de Mayo.
Saturation patrols have additional officers blanketing streets known for drunken driving stops, arrests, crashes and deaths.
Law enforcement across California says there is an uptick in DUI incidents around the fifth of May, which commemorates Mexico’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. These days, Cinco de Mayo is promoted by watering holes as Cinco de Drinko or Drinko de Mayo.
For those who must travel to get their Cinco de Mayo drink on, authorities suggest designating a sober driver, calling a cab or logging onto a ride-service app—anything other than climbing behind the wheel.
Funding for the local DUI operations come from California Office of Traffic Safety grants, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.