Edhat Staff
Source: Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office
The Goleta Police Department Traffic Unit will be conducting a DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint tonight, June 8, 2018, at an undisclosed location within the city limits between the hours of 6:00 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.
In recent years, California has seen a disturbing increase in drug-impaired driving crashes. The Goleta PD supports the new effort from the Office of Traffic Safety that aims to educate all drivers that “DUI Doesn’t Just Mean Booze.” If you take prescription drugs, particularly those with a driving or operating machinery warning on the label, you might be impaired enough to get a DUI. Marijuana can also be impairing, especially in combination with alcohol or other drugs, and can result in a DUI.
The deterrent effect of High Visibility Enforcement using both DUI checkpoints and DUI Saturation Patrols has proven to lower the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol or drug impaired crashes. Research shows that crashes involving an impaired driver can be reduced by up to 20 percent when well-publicized proactive DUI operations are conducted routinely.
DUI Checkpoints like this one are placed in locations based on collision statistics and frequency of DUI arrests, affording the greatest opportunity for achieving drunk and drugged driving deterrence. Locations are chosen with safety considerations for the officers and the public.
In California, alcohol involved collisions led to 1,155 deaths and nearly 24,000 serious injuries in 2014 because someone failed to designate a sober driver. Over the course of the past three years Goleta PD officers have investigated 116 DUI collisions which have claimed 2 lives and resulted in another 46 persons injured.
Officers will be looking for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment, with officers checking drivers for proper licensing, while delaying motorists only momentarily. When possible, specially trained officers will be available to evaluate those suspected of drug-impaired driving, which now accounts for a growing number of impaired driving crashes.
Studies of California drivers have shown that 30 percent of drivers in fatal crashes had one or more drugs in their systems. A study of active drivers showed more tested positive for drugs that may impair driving (14 percent) than did for alcohol (7.3 percent). Of the drugs, marijuana was most prevalent, at 7.4 percent, slightly more than alcohol. Everyone should be mindful that if you’re taking medication – whether prescription or over-the-counter – drinking even small amounts of alcohol can greatly intensify the impairment affects.
Drivers are encouraged to download the Designated Driver VIP, or “DDVIP,” free mobile app for Android or iPhone. The DDVIP app helps find nearby bars and restaurants that feature free incentives for the designated sober driver, from free non-alcoholic drinks to free appetizers and more. The feature-packed app even has social media tie-ins and even a tab for the non-DD to call Uber, Lyft or Curb.
Drivers caught driving impaired can expect the impact of a DUI arrest to include jail time, fines, fees, DUI classes, license suspensions and other expenses that can exceed $10,000 not to mention the embarrassment when friends and family find out.
Funding for this checkpoint is provided to the Goleta Police Department by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, reminding everyone to ‘Report Drunk Driver – Call 9-1-1’.
The City of Goleta contracts with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office for police services.
Agree 100%. Per the bill of rights: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Stopping and searching people without probable cause or due process of law is absolutely illegal and un-American. I believe any law enforcement officer who participates in such a checkpoint is violating his oath to uphold the constitution. Unfortunately, the absoluteness of the bill of rights seems to be eroding. I think it is imperative that we apply the protections outlined in the bill of rights to 21st century technology. The bill of rights protects you in your car as much as it historically protected you in a stagecoach. It protects your activities on the internet, your electronic devices, etc.
These DUI “We scored a huge grant!” are a joke due to the long ago, legal bailout escape routes. They need to tighten these up so they are 100% effective. What a scam of taxpayers money in the form of LEO special funding deals.
What bailout routes? Checkpoints will never be 100% effective by their very nature. They are immobile and highly visible. The results are ALWAYS paltry, because the best way to find drunks is patrolling, not sitting and waiting for them to come to you.
checkpoints should be illegal. incredible waste of money and violates the rights of citizens.
Correct..check-points, along with 90% of all other actions taken by our city leaders, is/are, illegal.
The glue which holds their activities together is..
our silence.
As citizens, we have forgotten our roles..
“They” work for “Us”, not the other way.