Laguna Beach: The Real OC Checkpoint

Somewhere in the mean streets of Laguna Beach starting at 9 Saturday night, police will be screening drivers to make sure they are sober and properly licensed.

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Yes, checkpoint mania has moved to Orange County's best stand in for the Mediterranean, and to hear Laguna Beach Police Lt. Jeff Calvert tell it, a sobriety stop is sorely needed: “Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed one life and have resulted in 37 injury crashes, harming 53 of our friends and neighbors in Laguna Beach.”

Talk about the Real Orange County. Speaking of buzzkills, Calvert noted that cops working the checkpoint are specially trained to look for drugged drivers. He cited data that showed about 30 percent of motorists in fatal crashes had one or more drugs in their system and that DUI drivers are twice as likely to have drugs in their system as alcohol.

When it comes to drugged driving, tail pipes aren't the only thing smoking, according to Calvert, which said marijuana is the most prevalent drug of choice of DUI drivers.

Funding for the checkpoint comes from a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!

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