CHP

Happy Memorial Day. To all those who have served our country, we salute you! The weekend also brings a Maximum Enforcement Period (MEP) for the California Highway Patrol (CHP). Our officers will be out in full force, helping to save lives. The CHP would like to take a moment to remind drivers to plan ahead, if you are going out. Whether you are headed to a bar or a barbeque, have a plan for getting home safely. There are so many ways to achieve this, it really leaves no... excuse for meeting one of our officers this MEP. For those who insist on pushing the limit, we will be there to take enforcement action. Designate a Sober Driver! #CaliDDP

Do you know what the presumptive level of Blood Alcohol Content (BAC), in California means? That’s the number that most of us are familiar with and the one which is always thrown out there, when discussing DUI. It is the .08%, you might hear people discussing. Just like it says, that is the BAC at which a person is presumed to be impaired, the point at which no one is authorized to be driving. Does that mean, if you are under .08% BAC, you will not be arrested? No, you c...an be arrested for being impaired, at a level below .08% BAC. One example of how this might happen is, if a you use drugs or prescription medications, by themselves, or in combination with alcohol. Another example is, if you are at a BAC level below .08%, but you are showing signs of impairment from alcohol intoxication. Presumptive impairment is for adults, 21 years or older. Now at what BAC is someone under 21 years old, allowed to legally operate a vehicle? Well, since it is illegal to drink alcohol until you are 21 years old, it follows that we have a Zero Tolerance law for under 21-year-old DUI. Simply put, this law says persons under 21 years old may not operate a vehicle with any detectable amount of alcohol in their system. In either case DUI is illegal and expensive. Save yourself the fines and trouble. Remember, if you are under 21, sorry no drinking alcohol altogether and if you are older than 21, please Designate a Sober Driver!

Some things we do not consider if we get behind the wheel, after drinking. One shift, I was working in Southern California (you know, on one of those super busy freeways), I was called to a collision with an ironic outcome. The traffic was stop and go and there was your typical rear end collision, one of those where traffic speeds up and something occurs, some 50 vehicles ahead, which causes traffic to slow. Suddenly one person cannot slow down or stop and the vehicle collid...es with the one in front of them. Here’s where it gets ironic, the driver of the vehicle that was struck from behind (the not at fault party in this case) was DUI and ended up being arrested. Instances like this are rare, but they do happen. We all know the dangers of DUI and the horrific stories of injuries or death and this story is not intended to downplay those hazards. This story is meant to point out the risks an individual takes by getting behind the wheel. Many posts ago, we talked about persons surveyed who indicated they drove up to 80 times, under the influence, before being caught and arrested. You see, when a person decides to get behind the wheel intoxicated, they cannot predict when their luck (the hypothetical 80 times) is going to run out. That was the case for the party who got rear ended on that SoCal freeway. The moral of the story is we should always Designate a Sober Driver. The fact that the party was not at fault in the collision does not change the fact that they were still operating a vehicle while DUI and they still went to jail. Don’t push your luck with DUI because as you can see from the story above, eventually your luck runs out, in ironic ways at times.

The power of reporting DUI drivers to 911. Many times, we rely on the observations of citizens, driving on the roads to report DUI drivers. As patrol officers we would love to be everywhere, all the time, when bad things are happening. The fact is that is nearly impossible. That is where the observant citizen comes in. Since we cannot be everywhere at once, often that caller alerting us ends up saving lives.... I recall one day hearing the call of a possible DUI driver who was on my beat, but many miles away. I began heading in the direction where it was last seen. I observed the vehicle and the driver was driving as poorly as the person who called it in had reported. I conducted an enforcement stop and the driver was heavily under the influence of prescription medications. The saddest thing about this case was there were children in the car. After getting the children to a responsible family member, I transported the driver to the local jail. This case turned out as well as it could have, with no injuries to the driver and especially none to the children. A better alternative would have been for the driver opt for a Sober Driver, rather than to get behind the wheel. Please be aware of the warning labels on your medications because they might cause you to become impaired. If the label on the medications state that they may cause impairment, do not get behind the wheel! Please Designate a Sober Driver!

Getting ready for the weekend? Let’s make sure it is a safe one! Did you know that DUI laws apply to operating vehicles on highway, off highway, and even on private property? Many people are unaware of this fact and are surprised when law enforcement shows up and takes enforcement action while they are riding an ATV, motorcycle, or even a golf cart.... What is the best way to avoid being arrested under these circumstances? It’s obvious to most, but simply put, don’t get behind the wheel if you have been drinking. If you are riding off road or golfing, save the drinking for after your ride or round. And regardless of where you have been drinking, make sure you Designate a Sober driver to get you home safely.

One night, I was on patrol in a rural area. I had just transitioned from one highway to another. As I turned, I observed a vehicle approaching in the opposite direction. It turned off its headlights for a while and then turned them on again. I made a U-turn and made a traffic stop for the driver failing to use their headlights during the hours of darkness. I contacted the driver and immediately detected the odor of alcohol coming from within the vehicle. I conducted field... sobriety tests and determined the driver was intoxicated and the driver was arrested. The interesting thing about this case was the reason the driver turned the headlights off in the first place. When I was conducting my investigation, the driver admitted to turning the headlights off. The driver said they did so because they were letting the other driver know, It was cool. When I asked the driver to clarify, they explained that they were letting the other driver know, essentially, that they were not upset with them. In digging further into the situation, the driver admitted to having a road rage incident with the other driver. The DUI driver said they tried to flash their lights to let them know they were not upset but they must have turned them off instead. Finally, it all came together, the second driver had been so angry at the DUI driver because they were so intoxicated and driving so dangerously that they became frustrated and acted out. We all know the correct thing to do in this case would have been to call 911, but I guess the emotions of the second driver got the better of them. Fortunately, this incident did not end up in a fight between drivers on the side of a rural highway. Fortunately, the DUI driver was stopped and arrested before they hurt somebody. We should never say, Fortunately, I made it home without being stopped or arrested or Fortunately, I made it home without crashing, when it comes to DUI. There are way too many options to get home safe if we are out drinking. Please don’t leave it to fortune and Designate a Sober Driver!

Let’s do some self-assessment regarding hosting gatherings and our responsibility to ensure our guests have a Designated Driver. If we have a gathering at our home, how do we operate as the host? Do we ensure our guest have a safe way to get home? Some of the ways we can ensure our guests are safe are:... We can stop serving alcohol early at our event. Consider offering non-alcoholic drinks between alcoholic drinks. Don’t offer another drink to your guests before they have finished their first. Offer our guests a place to stay. Ask our guests to ensure they Designate a Driver. Monitor how much people are drinking by serving the drinks, rather than having self-service. Provide plenty of non-alcoholic drinks for the Designated Driver. Offer your guests a ride-share or taxi. Have a member of your household remain sober and be the Designated driver. As a host, you would feel terrible if something happened to your guests and they did not make it home safely. And if they injured or killed another person, that feeling would be compounded. Please Designate a Sober Driver!

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), approximately every 50 minutes, a person is killed as a result of a DUI collision. We have all been driving and seen that car ahead weaving within the lane. If the driving is really bad, we observe it weaving across all of the traffic lanes. We say to ourselves, that person is going to kill someone or themselves. If you observe this type of driving, we encourage you to call 911, to report it. But wou...ldn’t it be nice if we never had to worry about being a victim of such a driver. All it takes is planning, thinking ahead about how we are going to get home. The options are simple: stay where you are until you are sober, get a ride from a sober driver, take public transportation, or get a ride-share or a taxi. Now imagine yourself as the DUI driver, the options are not so simple for them. You might be arrested, spend the night in jail, have your car towed, have to deal with multiple court dates and hearings, and the list goes on. What if you were not so lucky, to only be arrested, and your poor decision to drink and drive cost one of the lives lost every 50 minutes across the USA? What if you had to face the family of the person you killed, and they get the opportunity to tell you what pain you have caused to their family because of your poor choice? Knowing this, most people would not choose to cause that type of hurt to another individual, so why do we still have an issue with impaired driving, when we have so many options to prevent it? Please Designate a Sober Driver!

An important message from the Designated Driver Program. The video poses the question, Out of something? We already know alcohol impairs our ability to operate a motor vehicle but how about our ability to make good decisions? The video portrays some instances when we might be out of something in our home that might cause us to go out. The fridge is empty, and we are hungry, so we hop in the car and get some groceries. How about the middle scenario, when we are having... a fun party and the alcohol runs out? Maybe we have been drinking and we want to run out quickly to get more drinks to continue the party. This might seem like a good decision when we are thinking how hungry we are or how are friends are going to leave because the alcohol is gone. The CHP invites you to be think about the consequences of these choices. You see, if you decide to drive while impaired you might get arrested. For most people, that is enough of a deterrent, for others maybe not so much. The worst-case scenario is you get behind the wheel and hurt or kill another person. So, a reminder, DUI is always preventable! Think about the things you can do if you found yourself needing an item that the video portrays. You can have items delivered to you, you can get a sober driver to take you where you need to go, or you can take a taxi or ride-share. There is never a good reason to get behind the wheel impaired, so please Designate a Sober Driver!

Don’t let Father’s Day turn into a tragedy! Designate a Sober Driver before you go out. One easy way you can ensure you have a safe outing is to plan ahead. It sounds simple and it is, but it does take discussion before the partying begins. Ask the question, who is going to remain sober in the group? The discussion should not be which one of us has had the least to drink and handing the keys to that individual. If you have not prearranged for a designated driver, all is... not lost, there are still so many other options rather that getting behind the wheel. Take a rideshare or taxi, use public transportation, or get a hotel room to stay near your event. Please stay safe and Designate a Sober Driver.

Some myths about alcohol intoxication are that you can drink a cup of coffee or take a cold shower to sober up. These things are simply not true, our bodies metabolize everything we put into our system, including food, water, or alcohol. The fact of the matter is, the only thing that will sober us up, is time! So, the more alcohol we consume, the longer it will take for us to sober up, there is no way around that fact. We cannot rely on the myths of coffee or cold showers to get us home safely. What can we do? We can Designate a Sober Driver to get us to our destination safely.

The presumptive legal limit for alcohol intoxication in California is .08% Blood Alcohol Concertation (BAC). Even if you drink a lesser amount, let’s take a look at the effects of alcohol on a person at various other levels. At .02% BAC, our visual functions decline, and it is difficult for a person to perform two tasks at the same time. How many things are we doing at one time while operating a vehicle? To name a few things, we are operating the throttle and brake, the ...steering wheel, and visually watching the road ahead. These are just a few items a person does when driving, and numerous other activities could be identified as well. How about at .05% BAC? We start to see reduced coordination, reduced ability to track moving objects, difficulty steering and reduced response to responding to an emergency or hazard in the roadway. At .08% BAC, we see a lack of concentration, short-term memory loss, reduced information processing capability and impaired perception. As demonstrated above alcohol begins to impair at even the slightest levels which is why we recommend individuals Designating a Sober Driver to get you home safely.

With the reopening of California, don’t forget to Designate a Sober Driver. We might be excited to go back to our favorite bars or restaurants, but this is a reminder that DUI is not only dangerous, but it is expensive too! The list of fees includes: fines, penalties, restitution, legal fees, and increased insurance costs. How much does a rideshare cost? If it cost you $35, would you take it? Or would you say, it only cost me $15 last time and I can make it home because I h...ad less to drink than last time. What if the fines and fees listed above cost over $33,000. What would you choose then? To me it is an easy choice, save myself $32,965. But more than that, I would choose not to put the lives of others in danger by driving intoxicated. As we get going again California, remember to Designate a Sober Driver.