The Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) will be conducting a Driving
Under the Influence (DUI) / Driver’s License Checkpoint on March 16, 2018 at an undisclosed location within the city limits between the hours of 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m.
In recent years, California has seen a disturbing increase in drug-impaired driving crashes. The Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) supports the new 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.
During 2014 in California, 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.
Officers will be looking for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment, with officers checking drivers for proper licensing, delaying motorists only momentarily, when possible, specially trained officers will be available to evaluate those suspected of drug impaired driving, which now accounts for a growing number of impaired driving crashes.
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 Santa Monica Police Department 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’.
