Salinas Police

It’s New Year’s Eve, time to welcome 2017 with a toast—or two. Just make sure the night’s plans don’t include driving immediately after the revelry ends, law enforcement officials say.

“We’d like you to start the new year off right, and not in debt,” says Oscar Loza, public information officer for the California Highway Patrol Monterey Area office. A first time DUI can cost an offender between $10,000 and $15,000, according to Loza.

This weekend the Monterey area CHP is deploying an additional four roving patrols specifically for DUI enforcement in the county, he says. The money to pay for the overtime detail comes from a grant from the state Office of Transportation Safety.

The city of Salinas also received grant monies to pay for extra patrols to seek out drivers who are drugged or drunk over the holiday season, says Sgt. Gerard Ross. Extra patrols began on Dec. 16, and will continue through Sunday evening. Officers will be looking during daytime hours for anyone who drank all night, he adds.

Over the last three years, Monterey-area CHP officers have arrested seven or eight people per New Year’s holiday, Loza says.

“The good news is we haven’t had a fatal DUI car crash since 2010,” he says. In that instance an 18-year-old driver caused a crash that lead to the death of a passenger.

About one third of all 2014 traffic-related deaths in the U.S., almost 10,000 people, were linked to alcohol-impaired driving crashes, according to a U.S. Department of Transportation report. Loza says most people think a deadly crash will never happen to them, so law enforcement officers focus their message the negative impacts on people’s wallets.

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