More Holiday Drunk-Driving Checkpoints Due

Los Angeles police and California Highway Patrol officers are beefing up their efforts to arrest drunk drivers over the holidays, setting up checkpoints where suspected drunk drivers will be given sobriety tests.

After Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates authorized drunk-driving checkpoints in the city on Tuesday, the department’s Valley Traffic Division announced that it would set up such checkpoints throughout the San Fernando Valley beginning Saturday and lasting through New Year’s Day.

Sgt. Dennis Zine, who directs the division’s drunk-driving squad, said the checkpoints will be set up at several sites after 7 p.m. nightly. Before the first checkpoint is established, he said, a news conference will be held to discuss the department’s program and the location of that night’s checkpoints.

Meanwhile, the California Highway Patrol said it has increased its patrols by one-third for the holiday season, and it will add a fourth checkpoint Friday to three established earlier this month in Los Angeles and Orange counties. So far, 18 drunk drivers have been arrested at the three checkpoints.

State Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp joined CHP officials at an East Los Angeles tow yard Tuesday to dramatize the need to crack down on intoxicated motorists.

Pointing to a car demolished in an accident involving a drunk driver, Van de Kamp said the tangled wreck “is a graphic illustration of what an explosive and deadly mix alcohol and driving is.

“This car was crashed and rolled last Saturday by an 18-year-old drunk driver. Both he and his passenger--another 18-year-old--were seriously injured. Dozens of other young people won’t be that lucky” this holiday season, he said.

Van de Kamp also said that on a typical day in California, seven people die in accidents involving drunk drivers. He pointed to a chart showing that drivers between ages 15 and 24 account for two-thirds of all accidents in which a driver is drunk.

“We particularly urge our young people and, indeed, everyone during this holiday season not to drink and drive,” the attorney general said.