DUI Checkpoint ends up with 1400 drivers stopped, no DUI arrests

Our Newport Beach DUI Lawyers have learned that the Orange County Sheriffs Department arrested two drivers for driving on suspended licenses and cited 10 others for driving without their licenses while conducting a DUI checkpoint that was part of a statewide campaign funded by the state Office of Traffic Safety.

Almost 1,400 cars passed through the Laguna Niguel checkpoint between 8:30 p.m. Friday and 1 a.m. Saturday, Deputy Wayne Howard said. Of those, 741 drivers were directed into primary screening and 27 drivers were directed to secondary screening.

Five drivers were given field sobriety tests, but none were found to be driving while impaired. Ten vehicles were towed. Two teen drivers were cited for driving in violation of their provisional driver’s licenses.

Since the campaign began Aug. 20, 188 drunken drivers have been arrested countywide. The campaign will continue until Sept. 6, with additional DUI checkpoints and roving saturation patrols planned for cities countywide. Patrols can consist of from one patrol car to 10 specifically targeting drunken drivers, Howard said.

Deputies also are targeting people who have not shown up on court warrants. They will be arrested at their homes and taken directly to court, Howard said.

The summer campaign is in its first of three years, and it’s the impound fees for unlicensed drivers, plus the matching funds from the Federal Government, that make checkpoints particularly profitable, even if they are not at all effective in removing drunken drivers from the street (roving patrols are much more effective).

“So they will be hit pretty hard,” Howard said. “It’s kind of an all-out blitz.”  Our Orange County DUI lawyers continue the good fight.  Call us anytime.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Dui Checkpoints, DUI News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.