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, May 3.
“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 Santa Monica Police Department will be conducting a DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint on Friday, May 3, 2019 at an undisclosed location within the city limits between the hours of 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m.
In California 2014, alcohol involved collisions 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.
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’.
