Sobriety Checkpoints Roll Out Across Central Coast

Local law enforcement was out in force Friday night in Santa Maria trying to keep impaired and unlicensed drivers off the road.

West Main Street is a busy part of town on any given night in Santa Maria.

More than a dozen officers from the California Highway Patrol and the Santa Maria Police Department manned a sobriety checkpoint for vehicles heading west and east along the 500 block of West Main Street.

The CHP says checkpoints are effective despite the advent of social media that allows possibly impaired drivers or unlicensed drivers to steer clear from the area to avoid detection and even arrest.

“We will be screening drivers not only for their sobriety but also for their drivers licenses to make sure they are in fact licensed”, says CHP Officer Craig Carrier, “our main goal here this evening is to not only detect impaired drivers but also these are great deterrents, we can educate the public in the dangers of drinking and driving.”

The CHP says the location of the checkpoint was chosen based on traffic safety statistics and incidents involving DUI and or unlicensed drivers in the area.

Those we spoke with were glad to see the traffic safety enforcement despite any inconveniences or perceived profiling.

“I think I used to have reservations about them (checkpoints), but now I think its what needs to be done, to make sure that everyone is licensed and everyone is safe” says local resident Lydia Torres, “I think a lot of people may have thought that it maybe more of immigration checkpoint and drivers license checkpoint, they would try to avoid them, try to run away from them, but I think at the end of the day it is just to keep the community safe and keep people licensed as they should be.”

Sobriety checkpoints are planned in cities across the Central Coast all the way through the New Year’s Day holiday.

Impaired drivers identified by field sobriety tests are arrested and their vehicles towed away.

Unlicensed drivers are given a citation and an opportunity to have a valid, licensed driver drive the vehicle away from the checkpoint without having it towed.

Money to pay for overtime and other costs of staffing the checkpoints comes from grant funds from the California Office of Traffic Safety.

The OTS says research shows crashes involving impaired drivers can be reduced by as much as 20 percent with routine sobriety checkpoints and proactive DUI patrols.