City of Goleta DUI Checkpoints

City of Goleta- December 11th, 2008

The holiday season, with its celebrations, parties, shopping and traveling to friends and family, puts more motorists in harm’s way of more potential impaired drivers.  Beginning Friday, December 12th, 2008, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department will join law enforcement across the state as part of California’s Holiday DUI Crackdown Campaign, as well as encouraging the public to call 9-1-1 to report suspected drunk drivers. Funding for the special enforcement activities comes from a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

There will be a DUI checkpoint in the City of Goleta on December 12th, 2008. All vehicles entering this checkpoint will be screened and driver’s licenses will be checked.

2007 marked the first year since 1998 in which alcohol-related fatalities declined in California, dropping 8.3 percent. “California has worked very hard over the past five years to reverse the trend of increasing alcohol-related traffic fatalities,” said OTS Director Christopher J. Murphy. “Through an aggressive combination of various anti-DUI operations, including sobriety checkpoints, together with the public calling 911 when they see a drunk driver, we’re getting these dangerous drivers off the road.”

All too often, citizens of Goleta are senselessly injured or killed on local roadways by impaired drivers. These DUI/Drivers License checkpoints are an effort to reduce those tragedies, as well as insuring drivers have a valid driver’s license. A major component of these checkpoints is to increase awareness of the dangers of impaired driving and to encourage sober designated drivers. 

The public is encouraged to call 9-1-1 to report drunk drivers and be ready to describe the vehicle, it’s location and direction of travel. The following clues can help motorists detect a drunk driver:

• Weaving/swerving in and out of the lane
• Weaving within the lane quite noticeably
• Travelling at speeds much slower than the flow of traffic
• Braking erratically or stopping in the lane
• Sudden stops for signal lights and slow start once they change
• Remaining at the signal lights once they turn green – asleep at the wheel
• Making wide turns and/or cutting the corner, striking the curb
• Headlights off at night or on high beams
• Driving with the turn signals on
• Straddling the center line of the road or lane lines
• The Driver looks intoxicated – starring straight ahead, face close to the windshield, and appears to by quite sleepy…
• Finally Aggressive Driving – speed, tailgating and multiple lane changes or unsafe passing may also be the tell-tale signs of intoxication