DUI check, more patrol for Tahoe’s Hot August Night crowd

In preparation for Hot August Nights, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department will be conducting a DUI/driver’s License checkpoint on July 29 from 8pm-1:30am, along Lake Tahoe Boulevard and Pioneer Trail.

This will be followed up July 30 and July 31 with extra officers on roving DUI Saturation Patrols from the “Avoid the 6” Multi-Agency DUI Task Force searching for possible impaired drivers.

The summer months are a dangerous time of the year and your odds of being involved in a drunken driving crash can be high. In 2008, law enforcement statewide reported 7,801 people were injured or killed in alcohol involved collisions 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.

In addition to these DUI operations, law enforcement agencies throughout the region are putting more officers out on checkpoints and DUI roving saturation patrols during the end of August/Labor Day 18-day nationwide anti-DUI effort.

The checkpoint and other DUI enforcement patrols are part of the city and county’s ongoing traffic safety efforts. Officers will also be checking for those who are driving with a suspended driver’s license as well as those who are unlicensed. Any motorist found driving with an invalid license may have their vehicle impounded for 30 days and be issued a citation.

The funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

If you see a drunken driver, call 911.