Drunk Driving DUI Law

Local law-enforcement agencies will implement DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols in Petaluma and nearby areas during a countywide crackdown during the Memorial Day weekend.

“Law enforcement (agencies) throughout the county will be combining resources and sending out a unified message this Memorial Day weekend to holiday travelers, college graduates and communities enjoying festivities that drunk driving won’t be tolerated. If you’re over the limit, you will be arrested,” said Sgt. Ken Savano of the Petaluma Police Department.

The county’s Avoid the 13 DUI task force will be staffing checkpoints this weekend and deploying additional local DUI saturation patrols working overtime. The task force will be “targeting those (people) who still don’t heed the message to designate a sober driver before the celebrations begin,” Savano said.

The enforcement campaign will begin in Petaluma on Friday night, May 22 with a DUI/driver’s license checkpoint in Petaluma, and saturation patrols will be scheduled throughout the weekend. The California Highway Patrol will be deploying 80 percent of all available officers — on freeways and county roads in its jurisdiction — during the weekend.

Funding for the operations is being provided through a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The number of people killed in alcohol-related deaths in California dropped from 1,597 in 2006 to 1,489 in 2007. Traffic-safety experts are hoping that when data is available for 2008, it will show an additional decline.

“Police, sheriff and CHP officers are doing more with less to remove drunk drivers from California’s streets and highways,” said Chris Murphy, director of the California Office of Traffic Safety. “Law enforcement (agencies) everywhere are asking for the community’s help; if you see a drunk driver, call 911.”

The Petaluma Police Department serves as the lead agency for California DUI enforcement efforts in Sonoma County to reduce alcohol-related injuries and raise general public awareness regarding the problems associated with drinking and driving.

Participating agencies include the city police departments from Cloverdale, Cotati, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma and Windsor; Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department; Sonoma State University Police Department; Santa Rosa Junior College Police Department; Santa Rosa Junior College Police Department; California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control; and California Highway Patrol.

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