Arroyo Grande police holding DUI checkpoint Friday night

August 8, 2024

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

Arroyo Grande police plan to conduct a DUI checkpoint in the South County city at an undisclosed location on Friday evening from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

The police department selects the location based on a history of DUI crashes and arrests. Officers check licenses and insurance while looking for signs of impairment.

“Impaired drivers put others on the road at significant risk,” Arroyo Grande Police Chief Michael Martinez said. “Any prevention measures that reduce the number of impaired drivers on our roads significantly improves traffic safety.”

Drivers caught driving impaired and charged with a first-time DUI face an average of $13,500 in fines and penalties, as well as a suspended license. 

The Arroyo Grande Police Department reminds the public that impaired driving is not only because of alcohol. Certain prescription medications and over-the-counter drugs may interfere with driving, police said. Likewise, while medicinal and recreational marijuana are legal, driving under the influence of marijuana is illegal. 

Funding for this checkpoint was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

 


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By far the easiest place to get drunks is in the village. Lots of drinking establishments and people drive to get to them. I’ve seen literally staggering drunks walk out the back of Bills and get in their cars and drive off. And I’m not even trying to see them.


Likely on west Grand, they never have one in or around the village.


By law and policy, they must be placed in areas with higher concentrations of DUI crashes and/or citations.


Understand, but when you purposely avoid an area or let an area have a pass it doesn’t get a high number of DUI citations, but that diesnt mean there are not a high number of imaired drivers.