Program Targets Drunk Drivers

The three-day Memorial Day weekend is the state’s second-worst period each year for alcohol-related crashes, and San Gabriel Valley law enforcement officials again will be out in full force to keep drunk drivers off the roads.

Each year, an average of 48 people are killed on California highways over the Memorial Day weekend, second only to Labor Day weekend, when an average of about 58 are killed, officials said.

Sheriff’s deputies at the Industry station will team up with officers from California Highway Patrol stations in Baldwin Park and Santa Fe Springs to form a special anti-drunk-driving task force.

The program, funded by a $262,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, will provide for 36 additional officers over the weekend, said Capt. Michael Nagaoka, head of the Industry sheriff’s station.

Industry officers are also encouraging bartenders and waiters at local restaurants to ask their patrons to select a designated driver who would voluntarily refrain from drinking alcoholic beverages. In return, the establishment would provide free nonalcoholic drinks and possibly free snacks.

Seven restaurants in the area have already agreed to participate, Nagaoka said.

“We are trying to develop a model program in this jurisdiction,” Nagaoka said.

“It includes a number of innovations and new approaches, but none is more important than the Designated Driver Program, because that program’s goal is to stop the drunk driver before he or she gets behind the steering wheel.”