Crime & Safety
More Drunk Driving Checks On The Way
The ongoing holiday crackdown on drunk driving in Riverside County has netted 226 intoxicated drivers so far.
Additional drunk driving patrols are coming to Lake Elsinore and the surrounding communities in the coming weeks.
Riverside County law enforcement agencies made 266 drunken driving arrests during the Winter Holiday Anti-DUI crackdown from Dec. 16 through midnight Dec. 25, according to Riverside police Sgt. Skip Showalter.
During the same 10-day period in 2010, there were 337 arrests, Showalter said.
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The arrests by officers representing 30 law enforcement agencies were for local routine traffic enforcement and special Avoid the 30 DUI deployments in Riverside County, Showalter said.
A Dec. 16 checkpoint held at Lake Street and Lakeshore Drive netted two allegedly intoxicated drivers: Kevin Garner, 21, and Ronald King, 70, both of Lake Elsinore.
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According to a police news release, 701 vehicles passed through the checkpoint; six people were given field sobriety tests; seven vehicles were impounded; and six unlicensed and suspended drivers were sent to court.
to read more about that night.
The Avoid the 30 task force, so named for its 30 member law enforcement agencies, was set up to curb intoxicated driving in Riverside County. To read more about the task force and its mission, .
There have been at least three deaths attributed to drunken or impaired drivers in Riverside County during this time, while there were two alcohol- related deaths in the same 10-day period last year, according to the sergeant.
"Over the next several days of the campaign, DUI checkpoints will be conducted in Coachella, Jurupa Valley, Moreno Valley, Palm Desert and Temecula, with extra DUI saturation patrols deployed in Banning, Beaumont, Blythe, Coachella, Lake Elsinore, Perris, Menifee, Moreno Valley, Riverside and San Jacinto," Showalter said.
During saturation patrols, police units are poured into a certain area and assigned solely to pulling over drivers suspected of being under the influence.
He stressed that CHP officers will focus on stopping and arresting drunken drivers during the final days of their 17-day Winter Holiday Campaign, which will continue through New Year's weekend.
Toni McAllister and David Leonard contributed to this report.
