Redlands PD Schedules Weekend Sobriety Checkpoint

The Redlands Police Department has scheduled sobriety and safety checkpoints this weekend, beginning at 10 p.m. Friday through 3 a.m. Saturday in the southbound lanes of Alabama Street, between Park Avenue and Barton Road.

RPD, following the success of previous checkpoints, is using grant-funded sobriety checkpoints and targeted traffic patrols to improve traffic safety in the city.

On Monday, March 5, officers on a targeted grant-funded traffic patrol issued more than 20 citations. Officers patrolling near the intersection of Redlands Boulevard and Alabama Street and the intersection of Lugonia Avenue and Judson Street issued 12 citations to drivers using their cell phones, five speeding tickets, three citations for lane violations and one citation to a woman driving on a suspended license. Officers also impounded an unregistered vehicle with false tags.

DUI checkpoints are a proven enforcement tool effective in reducing the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes, RPD said. Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted frequently enough.

Officers will contact drivers passing through the checkpoint and look for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment. They will also check drivers for proper licensing, while making every effort to limit delays to motorists.

Drivers caught driving impaired can expect jail, license suspension, and insurance increases, as well as fines, fees, DUI classes and other expenses that can exceed $10,000.

In 2010, more than 10,000 people were killed nationally in motor vehicle traffic crashes that involved at least one driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 percent or higher. In California, this deadly crime led to 791 deaths because someone failed to designate a sober driver.

“Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions in the city of Redlands have claimed six lives and resulted in approximately 150 injury crashes,” said Redlands Police Sgt. Ricky Smith.

Checkpoints are placed in locations that have the greatest opportunity for achieving drunk and drugged driving deterrence and provide the greatest safety for officers and the public.

“Deaths from drunk and drug-impaired driving are going down in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS).  “But that still means that hundreds of our friends, family and co-workers are killed each year, along with tens of thousands who are seriously injured. We must all continue to work together to bring an end to these tragedies.  If you see a drunk driver, call 9-1-1.”

Funding for this checkpoint is provided to the Redlands Police Department by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, targeting those who still don’t heed the message to designate a sober driver.