If you're planning on driving drunk along Beach Blvd. in the vicinity of Stanton Ave. tonight and early tomorrow morning, be sure to bring some warm clothes. The Buena Park Police Department Traffic Unit will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint in the area between 7:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., and those legwarmers will come in handy once they drop your inebriated ass off at the jailhouse for a night of air-conditioned hell.
According to the police press release, “DUI checkpoints are a proven enforcement tool effective in reducing the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes. Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often enough.”
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In case you're curious how this works, the coppers will be “contacting drivers passing through the checkpoint for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment. Officers will also check for proper licensing 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.”
Sgt. Nunez of the Buena Park PD says that drunk drivers have killed 15 people, injured 94 others, and caused 724 crashes in the city in the past three years alone. Funding for this checkpoint was obtained via a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Yay! And remember, don't drink and drive!
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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.