If you're thinking of snaking through Garden Grove to avoid Anaheim's DUI checkpoint Saturday night (or vice versa) think again: Police from both towns will be stopping cars in search of unlicensed drivers and drunks behind the wheel.
First up is Anaheim, at 100 E. Lincoln Ave. between the hours of 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 a.m. Sunday.
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Anaheim Police warn if officers suspect that a driver has been drinking or is impaired, he or she will be subjected to a field sobriety test. Those who fail face jail, vehicle storage fees, license suspension, insurance rate increases, along with fines, fees, DUI classes and other expenses (like having to lawyer up) that can exceed $10,000.
Why the holler?
“Over the course of the past three years,” says Sgt. Rick Martinez, Anaheim PD's spokesman, “DUI collisions have claimed 9 lives and resulted in 643 persons injured.”
Garden Grove's similar operation at 11852 Knott St. runs from 9 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday. Traffic volume and weather permitting, all vehicles that pass through will be checked, according to the cop shop.
Funding for both departments' DUI checkpoints comes from a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, 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.