UPDATE, NOV. 11, 1:39 P.M.: The checkpoint that was conducted in Lake Forest Friday night resulted in more people being cited or arrested for driving without or on a suspended/revoked license (12) than for drug- or alcohol-related offenses (3), according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Their breakdown follows after the jump …
]
The results of Friday's checkpoint are as follows:
* 542 Vehicles screened
* 1 DUI-Alcohol impaired suspect arrested
* 1 DUI-Alcohol and Drug impaired suspect arrested
* 1 Suspect arrested for illegal drugs (possession/transportation/sales)
* 12 Drivers cited/arrested for operating a vehicle unlicensed or while suspended/revoked
* 2 Vehicles towed for storage or impound
ORIGINAL POST, NOV. 7, 11:18 A.M.: There will be a DUI/drivers license checkpoint from 6 tonight through 3 a.m. Saturday somewhere in Lake Forest, the Orange County Sheriff's Department just announced. Which is too bad, because I was searching for one in Orange County earlier so I could have built it around this story …
Devin Ashley Chavez Was DUI and Had Cocaine on Him When He Crashed into Pier: Police
The OC sheriff's advisory includes this tidbit that relates directly to the Manhattan Beach case linked to above: “A study of active drivers showed more tested positive for drugs that may impair driving (14 percent) than did for alcohol (7.3 percent).”
While we don't know the exact location of the Lake Forest checkpoint, those who know the streets there might to able to figure it out from this: “DUI checkpoints are placed in locations based on collision statistics and frequency of DUI arrests affording the greatest opportunity for achieving drunk and drugged driving deterrence.”
Funding for the OCSD op comes from a California Office of Traffic Safety grant, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Why?
“In the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed 21 lives and resulted in 497 injuries in areas patrolled by the Orange County Sheriff's Department,” says Deputy Shane Stewart of the department's Traffic Bureau in the checkpoint announcement.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
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.