DUI and License Checkpoint Planned for Long Beach

A DUI and driver's license checkpoint will be staged Saturday and Sunday in East Long Beach in hopes of snagging unsafe drivers and preventing injuries and death, Long Beach Police Department announced.

In Long Beach over "the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed 13 lives and resulted in 274 injury crashes harming 388 of our friends and neighbors," said Sergeant Aaron Alu.

"DUI checkpoints are a proven enforcement tool effective in reducing the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol-involved crashes. Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often enough," a press release by the department states.

The exact location of the checkpoint was not given, but officers will check driver's licenses and for any indications of a motorist's impairment, with an attempt to avoid delaying drivers much. The enforcement will run from 6 p.m. Saturday  through 2 a.m. Sunday.

The department said that drivers caught driving impaired can expect jail time, license suspension, and insurance increases, as well as fines, fees, DUI classes, and other expenses that can exceed $10,000. 

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), checkpoints have provided the most effective documented results of any of the DUI enforcement strategies, while also yielding considerable cost savings of $6 for every $1 spent.  Checkpoints are placed in locations that have the greatest opportunity for achieving drunk and drugged driving deterrence and provide the greatest safety for officers and the public. 

“Deaths from drunk and drug-impaired driving are going down in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS).  “But that still means that hundreds of our friends, family and co-workers are killed each year, along with tens of thousands who are seriously injured. We must all continue to work together to bring an end to these tragedies. If you see a drunk driver – call 9-1-1.”

Funding for this checkpoint is provided to the Long Beach Police Department by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, targeting those who still don’t heed the message to designate a sober driver.