Deputies to Beef Up Patrols Looking for Intoxicated Drivers Friday

From the Orange County Sheriff’s Department:

Deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s DUI Task Force will be deploying this weekend to stop and arrest alcohol and drug-impaired drivers in the department’s ongoing traffic safety campaign. DUI Saturation Patrols will deploy on Friday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. and continue until Saturday, Oct. 25 at 3 a.m. in the cities of Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel and Laguna Woods.

“This is a ‘Zero Tolerance’ crackdown so Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over!” said Sergeant Ray Wert of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Traffic Bureau.

After falling dramatically for five straight years, figures for 2012 increased to 802 deaths because someone failed to designate a sober driver. Over the course of the past three years DUI collisions in areas contracted by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department have claimed 21 lives and resulted in 497 injuries of our friends and neighbors.

DUIs can impact the economy in addition to the pain and suffering of those immediately affected. Conservatively, a fatality has a $1.4 million impact, an injury $70,000 and a crash that only damages property averages nearly $9,000.

Funding for this program is from a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Report Drunk Drivers, Call 911!

PHOTO Patch file photo.

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