Two Sunday Sobriety Checkpoints, One in Guadalupe, the other in Lompoc, Screen 827 Cars, Find No DUI Suspects

Lompoc / Guadalupe - December 22nd, 2008

 In two Sunday sobriety checkpoints, Lompoc police and officers with Avoid the 12, Santa Barbara County’s multi-jurisdictional crackdown on impaired drivers screened 827 motorists and ran 53 through field sobriety tests.

They did not arrest even one impaired driver, according to Deputy Win Smith of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Dept., Avoid the 12 coordinator.

“These were what I call perfect checkpoints,” he said, commenting that the purpose of checkpoints is to only to arrest DUI suspects but to remind the public of the dangers of drinking and driving.

Lompoc police held a checkpoint in the 1100 block of East Ocean Ave., said Sgt. Ed Lardner. Police towed 12 cars on 30-day holds because the drivers were not properly licensed. They made four warrants arrests.

The Avoid the 12 checkpoint, held in Guadalupe, towed three cars for the same reason and made one misdemeanor arrest, Smith said.

Avoid the 12 ends its three-week run on New Year’s Day. Like all 40 similar campaigns in California, it is funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

On the enforcement calendar for Christmas week and weekend is freeway saturation by the California Highway Patrol’s Santa Barbara, Buellton and Santa Maria area commands. CHP captains will assign nearly all available officers to road duty, canceling vacations and days off.