Drunk Driver Checks Help Cut Accidents

New Year’s Eve partying ended unhappily for dozens of people arrested on suspicion of drunken driving at three police sobriety checkpoints in San Diego County.

Area police reported only one traffic-related death in which, officials said, drinking may have been involved.

Omar Daniel Rodes, 17, of San Diego, suffered head injuries after falling off the hood of a moving station wagon about 1:10 a.m. Wednesday in a private parking lot in the 4400 block of Eastgate Mall, authorities said. Rodes, who resided on the block, was pronounced dead at Scripps Memorial Hospital at 4:50 p.m.

Another 17-year-old, Edward Hartley of Mira Mesa, suffered a fractured skull in the same accident and was being treated at Sharp Memorial Hospital, said Bill Robinson, spokesman for the San Diego police. The two were thrown to the ground when the driver made a sudden left turn, said the police spokesman.

The driver, also a 17-year-old resident of Mira Mesa, was detained on suspicion of drunken driving, police said. After Rodes’ death, police said they will seek to charge the detained youth with vehicular manslaughter. The youth, whose name was not revealed because he is a juvenile, was released in the custody of his parents, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, San Diego police said the department’s first-ever sobriety check, operated in the 2500 block of Grand Avenue in the heart of the night life area of Pacific Beach, was a big success. The checkpoints were set up in hopes of reducing the number of accidents related to drunken driving.

Pacific Beach was chosen because in the past it has been an area where there was a high incidence of drunken driving, police said. San Diego police also considered establishing the checkpoint at the Midway Old Town area, Hillcrest, La Jolla, San Ysidro, Mira Mesa and downtown before pinpointing Pacific Beach as the area with the highest proportion of accidents related to drunken driving, police said.

“It seems that the beach and partying just go together,” said Sgt. Ron Nichols, who works in the traffic division.

Between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 3 a.m. Wednesday, San Diego police stopped 1,270 vehicles at the checkpoint and arrested 17 people, who were then dispatched to the county jail downtown as suspected drunken drivers, police said. Two of the 17 were arrested after a minor crash at the checkpoint, said Sgt. Nichols.

Throughout the city, police arrested 49 individuals for drunken driving, including the 17 at the checkpoint, police said. As part of a quick-release program, police said, most suspected drunken drivers were set free after sober friends or relatives came to pick them up.

Police said the checkpoint was a success for two reasons: It prevented accidents by getting drunken drivers off the road, and it discouraged others from driving while intoxicated. Police officials will now consider whether to institute similar sobriety checkpoints for future holidays.

“We feel that it was a big success,” said Police Lt. Richard Bennett. “Any time we can get a potential accident off the road, we’re happy . . . My guess is that it will be strongly considered for the next holiday.”

Police could provide no statistics for the number of traffic accidents during the New Year’s holiday.

Meanwhile, 16 people were arrested at the California Highway Patrol checkpoint established at Sweetwater Boulevard and Jamacha Road in Spring Valley, at which 691 drivers were stopped, a CHP spokeswoman reported. The CHP also reported arresting 144 people for drunken driving elsewhere in the county between 6 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday.

The CHP spokeswoman said the Spring Valley checkpoint opened at 10 p.m. and was kept open until 2:30 a.m.--30 minutes longer than planned--because of heavier than expected early New Year’s morning traffic.

Several of the Spring Valley arrests were “rather bizarre,” the spokeswoman said. The last person cited for driving under the influence of alcohol, the spokeswoman said, was a woman who approached the checkpoint with her headlights off--in the same car in which she had been a passenger several hours before when her boyfriend was arrested for the same crime, at the same checkpoint.

Two other drunken driving arrests were recorded against drivers who were driving on the wrong side of the street in an effort to avoid the checkpoint, the spokeswoman said.

Oceanside police also established a New Year’s Eve checkpoint, on El Camino Real just north of Mesa Drive. A spokesman said 272 drivers were screened at the checkpoint between 9:30 p.m. and 3 a.m., and six were arrested for drunken driving. Two Oceanside officers working as a special roving unit made five additional drunken driving arrests early Wednesday morning.

San Diego police also reported making about 20 drug-related arrests New Year’s Eve at the Sports Arena during a concert by Ratt, a local heavy-metal band.

Times staff writer Patrick McDonnell contributed to this story.