DUI/ Drivers License Checkpoint planned for Saturday

El Centro Police Department will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint on Saturday, Sept. 9th at 2900 S. Dogwood Road between the hours of 9 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.

In recent years, California has seen a disturbing increase in drug-impaired driving crashes. El Centro Police supports the new effort from the Office of Traffic Safety that aims to educate all drivers that “DUI Doesn’t Just Mean Booze.”

Prescription drugs with a driving or operating machinery warning on the label can impair a driver enough to cause a DUI.

Marijuana can also be impairing, especially in combination with alcohol or other drugs, and can result in a DUI.

Officers will be looking for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment, and also checking drivers for proper licensing, delaying motorists only momentarily.

When possible, specially trained officers will be available to evaluate those suspected of drug-impaired driving, which now accounts for a growing number of impaired driving crashes.

Drivers caught driving impaired can expect the impact of a DUI arrest to include jail time, fines, fees, DUI classes, license suspensions and other expenses that can exceed $10,000.