Drunk Driving Crackdown This Weekend

Rohnert Park's "driving under the influence enforcement" team is ramping up patrols and checkpoints this weekend — part of a traffic safety push the Department of Public Safety launched this year to crack down on drunk drivers, people using their phones behind the wheel and speeders.

“We encourage a safe celebration of St. Patrick’s Day; however, our number one priority is to keep the community safe”, said Sgt. Aaron Johnson. “This is a zero tolerance crackdown, so drive sober or get pulled over!” 

Public Safety said in 2010, more than 10,000 people were killed nationally in motor vehicle traffic crashes that involved at least one driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent or higher. In California, this deadly crime led to 791 deaths.

In Rohnert Park, in a three-year period, drunk driving collisions caused 15 injury crashes, harming 20 people, Johnson said.

"RUOK?" is the text message version of the often hard question, “Are you okay to drive?”

"If you have to ask someone the question, you already know the answer,” said Christopher J. Murphy, director of the California Office of Traffic Safety. “You know they have had too much to drink or are showing signs of being buzzed.”

See someone whose had too much to drink? Call them a cab, take them home yourself or offer your couch, Murphy said.

The ramped-up enforcement stings are funded by a $73,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Monies are used to put more officers out on the streets — to use radar guns to track problem speeding areas, such as on Rohnert Park Expressway, and conduct sobriety checkpoints.

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