SANTA MONICA—On Friday, September 22, the Santa Monica Police Department will be conducting a Driving Under The Influence (DUI) and Driver’s License (DL) Checkpoint at an undisclosed location within city limits to ensure the safety of the public.
The Checkpoint will last from 7 p.m. until 3 a.m. According to a press release Canyon News received from Lt. Saul Rodriguez from the SMPD, the aim of the DUI and DL checkpoints is to prevent the number of deaths and injuries caused by drunk and drug-influenced drivers.
In California, there have been 867 deaths and over 23,000 serious injuries in the year 2013. In the United States, current data indicated 10,076 people have been killed by impaired drivers. Statistics show that 30 percent of drivers involved in fatal collisions have one or more drugs in their system. The study also shows that the percentage of DUI drivers affected by drugs (14 percent) are roughly twice as that of the percentage of DUI drivers affected by alcohol (7.3 percent).
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) the most effective strategy in decreasing the amount of impaired drivers in the city is by regulating random checkpoints in the road. Ninety percent of California drivers approve of these checkpoints.
The funding for the checkpoints were provided to the Santa Monica Police Department by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The SMPD reminds those who are going out to choose a designated driver, and to always report drunk drivers to 9-1-1.
A Blood Alcohol Concentration of 0.08 percent or higher is against the law in the United States for anyone operating a motor vehicle. Those who are caught driving under the influence can face with incarceration, fee-penalization, or both.
