The Seal Beach Police Department, CHP, and the Orange County Sherriff, among other agencies, will conduct “DUI Saturation Patrols from tonight throughout the long weekend. These patrols are focused on DUI only. The program, called Avoid the 38, is a grant funded Multi-Agency DUI Task Force designated to enforce laws pertaining to motorists driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. This is part of a regional and statewide effort.

According to the Orange County Sherriff’s Department, the program is “a 17 day holiday campaign to keep the local streets and highways free from preventable drunk driving deaths and injuries. Orange County Law Enforcement has been dedicating resources to staff DUI Checkpoints and roving DUI patrols. AS of Tuesday, 205 DUI-related arrests have been reported. There were 12 injuries reported that resulted from DUI related collisions. There have not been any DUI-related fatalities. The campaign will come to an end this coming weekend, January 3, 2010.”

Law enforcement agencies “encourage all motorists to assist in making our communities safer by reporting Drunk Drivers. When you see a car swerving, driving much too fast or much too slow, braking for no reason, driving with no headlights at night or signaling one way and turning the other, please call 9-1-1.”

As part of the Avoid the 38 program, the Seal Beach Police Department will operate a sobriety and drivers license check point starting at 8:00 PM on Friday, 1/1/2010. The exact location of the checkpoint is not being disclosed, but it will be in the south part of Seal Beach. “The Seal Beach Police Department exercises a zero tolerance policy towards drinking and driving,” said Sergeant Steve Bowles. "Our officers are working diligently to provide safe streets and highways for our motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians this holiday season."

Even though a first time offense for drunk driving, if no other violations are involved—such as a crash—is generally only a misdemeanor (see related article below), “Drunk driving is simply not worth the risk. Not only do you risk killing yourself or someone else, but the trauma and financial cost of a crash, or an arrest for impaired driving can be significant,“ said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety.

While Seal Beach will operate a checkpoint, www.OC180NEWS was told the Los Alamitos Police Department, referring to the holiday weekend, “It will be our normal deployment obviously DUI will be a priority, but we don’t have anything specifically set up for DUI enforcement, such as saturation patrols or checkpoints.”