Calif. lawmaker seeks mandatory training for alcohol servers
By Guy Kovner, Santa Rosa Press Democrat
In a move to cut down on the deadly toll from drunken driving, a Southern California legislator has proposed a bill that requires training for restaurant and bar workers intended to prevent the serving of alcohol to intoxicated patrons.
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, said her measure was a reaction to the deaths of two UC San Diego medical students killed in May by a wrong-way drunken driver. More than 10,000 people a year — an average of one every 52 minutes — die in crashes involving alcohol, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says.
The state-approved, four-hour training courses for bartenders, servers and managers would include “intervention techniques to prevent the service or sale of alcoholic beverages to underage or intoxicated persons,” the bill says. Other topics include the “social impact of alcohol” and its impact on the body.