DUI checkpoint canceled in South Tahoe

Publisher’s note: The DUI checkpoint for tonight has been canceled.

The South Lake Tahoe Police Department will be conducting a DUI/driver’s License checkpoint on June 21 from 8pm-1am along Lake Tahoe Boulevard and Pioneer Trail.

The department is continuing its efforts at lowering the number of people killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes locally and through the county’s Avoid DUI Task Force Campaign with this checkpoint.

Personnel will be checking drivers to identify offenders and get them off the street, as well as heightening awareness to the dangers of impaired driving.

The summer months are a dangerous time of the year and your odds of being involved in an alcohol involved collision can be high. In 2008, law enforcement statewide reported 7,801 people were injured or killed during the three summer months of June, July and August.

A major component of the checkpoints, beyond taking dangerous drivers off the road, is to increase awareness of the consequences of impaired driving and to encourage using sober designated drivers. A DUI checkpoint is a proven effective method for achieving this goal. By publicizing these enforcement and education efforts, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department believes motorists are deterred from drinking and driving.

South Lake Tahoe Police Department will also be partnering in this summer’s Avoid the 6 – DUI Campaign where all law enforcement agencies will put additional officers out on checkpoints and DUI saturation patrols during the Independence Day holiday and during the end of August/Labor Day nationwide anti-DUI effort, Over the Limit, Under Arrest.