CALABASAS : Sobriety Checkpoints Planned Next Week

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol have scheduled sobriety checkpoints next week in Malibu and Calabasas.

By law, the agencies must give advance warning to the public when they hold such checkpoints, although they do not announce the exact locations.

“We feel the publicity value is enough that when an occasional drinker learns we are holding a checkpoint it may be enough to discourage them from drunk driving,” said Sgt. Kevin Mauch of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.

The checkpoints will be set up between 8 p.m. Thursday and 3 a.m. the next morning. CHP and sheriff’s officers hold the checkpoint about every six to eight weeks. Out of about 800 to 1,200 people stopped on a typical night, there may be 10 to 12 drunk-driving arrests in addition to other violations, such as open containers in vehicles, authorities said.

Although the police do not release the locations of the checkpoints, there are signs posted warning drivers when they are approaching one. Drivers could then choose to turn off the road and avoid the checkpoint, so long as they do it safely.

Drunk drivers typically do not realize they are approaching a checkpoint until it is too late and then make it worse by doing something dangerous while trying to get away, Mauch said.

“My favorite is the drunk driver who realizes he’s in line for a checkpoint, panics and backs up, hitting the car behind him,” Mauch said.