County to Get Drunk Driver Checkpoint : CHP to Stop Cars Today at Undisclosed Location in Spring Valley

Spring Valley will be the site of San Diego County’s first sobriety checkpoint, a program instituted by the California Highway Patrol to reduce the number of drunk-driving-related accidents and arrests.

From 10 o’clock tonight to 2 a.m. Saturday, a random sampling of cars will be stopped by the CHP at an undisclosed location in Spring Valley. The location of the checkpoint will not be announced until 9 p.m.

According to Officer Steve Vail, traffic will be funneled into the checkpoint, where a sampling of cars will be stopped. If the driver passes the inspection, which takes less than 30 seconds, he or she will be given a survey asking his or her opinion of the operation. However, if there is some question that the driver has been drinking, the driver will be taken to a second checkpoint and given a field sobriety test.

Vail said a similar checkpoint will be set up in the South Bay within a month. The checkpoint operation, part of a statewide program, has been tested in Bakersfield and Sacramento. The program has been very successful in Sacramento, with a 19% decrease in accidents involving drunk drivers, said Kent Milton, a CHP public affairs officer.

However, he said the checkpoints in Bakersfield have not had the same success and, in fact, the area showed an increase in alcohol-related accidents. He said an expansion of the program will help the CHP learn why the program works in some areas and doesn’t in others.

According to Milton, questions as to whether the searches violate constitutional rights were addressed by an opinion issued by the state attorney general before the program began. Milton said the fact that inspections last only 30 seconds and are only held in areas proven to be high in drunk-driving accidents and arrests helps buttress their legal standing. Also, the general location must be announced two days in advance and the exact location an hour before. One of the more important criteria, though, is ensuring that the random sampling of cars is free from bias. In order to accomplish this, CHP officers follow a ratio formula for checking cars, such as every fourth or fifth.

Milton said motions to dismiss cases that went to court as a result of the checkpoints have been rejected in Bakersfield, Sacramento and Glendale. “In every instance, the court has let the trial proceed on its merits,” he said.

Because of the jail overcrowding in many counties, drunk-driving offenders are often not taken into custody. However, Milton said that the first driving-under-the-influence offense is punishable with a $1,000 fine and a 90-day suspension of the driver’s license.