Local News in Brief : Countywide : CHP Vows Crackdown on Drunken Drivers
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CHP officers, intent on reducing freeway fatalities this Thanksgiving holiday weekend, will be cracking down on drunk drivers, a California Highway Patrol spokesman warned Wednesday.
“Our message is we’re going to try to apprehend the drunk drivers before they crash or kill somebody,” Officer Howard Powell said.
Increased patrols, which began at 6 p.m. Wednesday, will continue throughout the busy holiday weekend until midnight Sunday, Powell pointed out.
Part of the CHP’s effort will include sobriety checkpoints to help reduce last year’s 60 reported highway deaths, which were an “all-time” high for a Thanksgiving weekend, Powell said.
The checkpoints, which were discontinued temporarily, were resumed after an Oct. 29 decision by the state Supreme Court upholding police authority to use the traffic checks, in which drivers are systematically stopped at a roadblock.
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