SMPD to conduct DUI checkpoint March 15 at an undisclosed location.
By Staff Writer
In recent years, California has seen a disturbing increase in drug-impaired
driving crashes and the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) is addressing this issue by holding a DUI checkpoint this Friday, March 15.
“The Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) supports the effort from the
Office of Traffic Safety that aims to educate all drivers that ‘DUI Doesn’t Just Mean Booze.’ If you take prescription drugs, particularly those with a driving or operating machinery warning on the label, you might be impaired enough to get a DUI. Marijuana can also be impairing, especially in combination with alcohol or other drugs, and can result in a DUI,” the SMPD said in a media release.
The SMPD will be conducting a DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint on Friday, March 15, 2019, at an undisclosed location within the city limits between the hours of 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m.
According to the SMPD, in 2014 alcohol-involved collisions in California led to 1,155 deaths and nearly 24,000 serious injuries because someone failed to designate a sober driver.
“Over the past three years, SMPD officers have investigated 163 DUI collisions, which have claimed 2 lives and resulted in another 56 injuries,” the SMPD said.
Drivers caught driving impaired can expect the impact of a DUI arrest to include jail time, fines, fees, DUI classes, license suspensions and other expenses that can exceed $10,000 not to mention the embarrassment when friends and family find out.
Funding for this checkpoint is provided to the SMPD by a grant from the California Office of
Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, reminding everyone to ‘Report Drunk Driver – Call 9-1-1’.
