UPDATE: Irvine PD reveals location of its checkpoint (detaIls after jump) . . .
Is there a better way to celebrate your freedom than involuntarily stopping for a government enforced sobriety checkpoint?
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Oh, yes, there are millions and millions of better ways to celebrate
than that. But that doesn't mean you'll avoid Orange County's “Avoid the 28”
campaign to keep drunken drivers off the road this holiday weekend. Here are some stops that have been announced:
- San Juan Capistrano, undisclosed location, 6 tonight until 2 a.m. Saturday.
- Buena Park, Beach Boulevard and 10th Street, 7 tonight until 3 a.m. Saturday.
- Irvine, Alton and Culver, 7 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday.
- Westminster, Beach and McFadden Avenue, 8 p.m. Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday.
Besides checking for DUI, officers ensure drivers have valid licenses to operate their vehicles.
In addition to checkpoints, there are saturation patrols scheduled over the weekend throughout Orange County, where all police departments and sheriff's offices participate in the “Avoid the 28” DUI enforcement effort that is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety.
Among the announced cities conducting these roving patrols are Brea, Cypress, Garden Grove, La Habra, Los Alamitos, Orange, Placentia,
Seal Beach and the jurisdictions that contract with the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
The UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton police
departments will also conduct patrols.
California
Highway Patrol considers the holiday weekend a “Maximum Enforcement Period,” meaning all available officers will be assigned to the region's freeways, state highways and
unincorporated roads from 6 p.m. Friday through midnight Monday.
The goal of all these efforts is to reduce fatalities, injuries and property damage due to drunk driving.
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.