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CHP conducts DUI checkpoint following Pozo Saloon concert

September 26, 2016

CHP@The California Highway Patrol, in conjunction with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, conducted a DUI and driver’s license checkpoint Saturday night in Santa Margarita. Authorities stopped drivers as they were leaving a concert at the Pozo Saloon.

CHP officers and sheriff’s deputies operated the checkpoint at Highway 58 and Maria Avenue from 8 p.m. until 12 a.m. The checkpoint netted four DUI arrests, as well as four citations, according to a CHP press release. Three of the citations were related to invalid driver’s licenses, and the other was issued to a passenger who had an open container of alcohol inside a vehicle.

A total of 790 vehicles passed through the checkpoint. Of those vehicles, 248 drivers were screened. The checkpoint caused traffic to back up for about a mile in Santa Margarita.

The Pozo Saloon held its third annual picnic concert on Saturday. The event was scheduled to end at 9 p.m.

Over the last year and a half, two people have died in crashes on Highway 58 that were allegedly caused by drivers leaving Pozo Saloon concerts.

On April 25, 2015, Donna Dean Magee, 56, of Templeton lost control of her Toyota Tacoma following the Pozo Stampede concert. Magee died after driving off the road and landing 25 feet below in a dry creek bed.

On April 30, 2016, Jessica Lea Allred, 23, of San Luis Obispo allegedly caused a fatal collision while driving intoxicated, also on the way back from the Pozo Stampede. Allred allegedly crossed a double yellow line and crashed head-on into Denise Lyn Fox, 56, of Santa Margarita.

Fox was pronounced dead at the scene. CHP officials have since recommended that prosecutors charge Allred with vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI causing injury to another person and causing great bodily injury to another person.


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As long as stupidity trumps reality, sadly checkpoints will help save lives….seems WE just don’t get it….that, or life is not worth much today….or both.


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Park a CHP car on the highway outside every winery every day for a month…problem solved.


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They need to do more of these around the venues that booze everybody up while they are watching a concert before pouring them out the gates and onto the roads.

Checkpoints are needed in Paso at Vina Robles, Pozo Saloon and at Avila Beach golf course.


Pozo is a special kind of problem. I was at a concert and the number of out of control drunks was amazing. The deputies were present, but being outnumbered by the crowd and not having a suitable way to house the drunks, all they could do was deal with the ones that were passed out. We waited 30 minutes for the last cars to leave so that we wouldn’t be in the midst of the drunk drivers on Pozo Road.


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They should do that at every concert in Pozo. I went to a concert out there last summer, and the number of highly intoxicated people was very high. There were people literally stumbling around drunk everywhere I looked. Even as we were backed up in traffic waiting to get to the venue. They were getting out of cars and peeing along the side of the road in full view. Alcohol sales are how they make their money after all. I am sure that a fair number of these people got behind the wheel that evening. I am surprised more people haven’t been killed or injured out there after concerts. If people knew a sobriety checkpoint is a given out there, people might exercise better judgment.


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What about other venues like Vina Robles or is Pozo on the county Sh.t list?


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The concert I went to out there was the biggest group of really hammered people I have ever seen. And I have been to a lot of local events in my day. I don’t know that every concert out there is like that, but I have been concerned about it ever since. People seem to be over-served, and some showed up already drunk. From what I saw, it should be on the list of places to monitor during events. Concerts at Avila Bay could get pretty rowdy way back in the day, once law enforcement increased their presence out there, it seemed like people were a lot more careful since it became known as a ‘bust.’


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I agree with you diana68. I’ve attended concerts at both Pozo and Vina Robles. The concert attendees at Pozo were so much more drunk than at Vina Robles. It seems like there is more of a tendency to show up drunk at Pozo than at Vina Robles. That is just my observation. Because of the amount of super drunk people at Pozo, I’ll never go back. People were getting sick everywhere. It was super disgusting.


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With everyone having smart phones they all knew there was a check point and ill bet they took hi mountain rd which comes out behind lopez lake — arroyo grande not a very slick check point


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Thanks for the tip, buddy! Next time any of my friends or I are drunk at Pozo and there is a checkpoint, we will definitely take that route! ;)


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Have you ever driven on Hi Mountain Rd from Pozo to Lopez? It is a rough dirt road that crosses a creek with 10 inches of water on average. Unless you drive a high clearance 4×4 vehicle, you are going to have a bad time. Oh wait, this was a Pozo Saloon concert – I forgot that describes the standard vehicle for the typical hillbilly attendee!


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Nonsense I have taken Hi Mountain Road in standard passenger vehicles many times (camry, jetta, passat). There are only a couple sketchy creeks and you just better not lose your confidence and slow down when driving across them!


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This needs to be on a regular basis. And yes, pop inspections along the routes the wine tasters frequent. People willing to misbehave and break the law, need to be held accounatble for their actions.

And for those going after LEO, maybe you should ask yourselves where else should they focus their energy and our monies, sitting behind a book like CHP does on all highway construction projects. How often do you see CHP pulling over any of the tens of thousands of drivers who continually speed on our highways and streets…


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Good Job guys! You spent our money and caught absolutely nobody for actual infractions! Should I stroke the ego to encourage you to continue, or should I ask for my money to be spent on worthwhile endeavors? It’s a tough question.


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Wow four arrested for DUI. WTF do you call that? Jaywalking?


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You did not read accurately. No one was arrested for DUI


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Really? What do you think the line “The checkpoint netted four DUI arrests” means then, if no one was arrested for DUI??


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It’s the deterrence factor that counts. The objective is to keep people from driving under the influence not necessarily catch drunk drivers. In this case I would say it worked admirably.


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So checkpoints on highway 58 for drunk concert goers, but never a checkpoint on 46 for drunk upperclass winos. pffft


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Should be some at both.


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