If you're driving on Friday or Saturday, skip the candy corn martinis and stick to the virgin blood punch: The OC Sheriff's Department says it'll be cracking down on drunk driving this weekend.
The statewide “Avoid the 12” program will be in effect. That means there'll be extra DUI patrols on the road, and even cops on regular duty will be looking to prevent drunk-driving-related accidents.
There's good cause for a crackdown, says the OCSD press release:
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA), in 2008, 58 percent of all highway fatalities across the
nation on Halloween night (6 pm Oct. 31 to 5:59 am Nov. 1) involved a
driver or a motorcycle rider with a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)
of .08 or higher. In California, 462 individuals have been killed or
injured in Alcohol Involved Collisions during the past five Halloween
nights – 2004-2008.
]
We haven't seen any municipal police agencies issue DUI warnings (we'll keep checking), but it's a safe bet they'll be on the look-out too.
The “Avoid the 12” recommended ways to avoid a DUI ticket: plan a safe way home before going out, designate a sober driver, don't hesitate to call a cab if you're buzzed and report drunk drivers to 911.
You gotta hand it to the sheriff's department. They came up with a good headline — “Don't Let Halloween Turn into a Horror Story.”
