Sobriety Checkpoint to Be Set Up Friday by Laguna Beach Police

Laguna Beach police will set up a sobriety checkpoint, randomly stopping motorists to check for drunk driving, Friday night at one of the main entrances to the city.

Laguna Beach is the second city in the county to institute the checkpoints. However, the first, Anaheim, has suspended its sobriety checks because of litigation. The California Highway Patrol, as part of a statewide program, has periodically set up checkpoints at various locations in the county.

“Over the years we’ve had a number of fatal accidents involving intoxicated drivers,” said Laguna Beach Police Lt. William Cavenaugh. The Police Department closely watched the CHP conduct its program and sought its advice before planning Friday’s checkpoint, he said.

Location Kept Secret

Laguna Beach, with its “unique geography,” has only three entrances--Laguna Canyon Road and Coast Highway on the north and south ends of town--which could aid police in establishing a strategically placed checkpoint, he said.

Cavenaugh would not reveal where Friday’s checkpoint will be set up--”it could be anywhere in the community”--because police do not want people to drive around it, he said.

The checkpoint is designed not only to catch intoxicated drivers but also to prevent people from driving if they have been drinking, he said. It is aimed at “the guy who does drink occasionally and at times is in violation of the law, . . . maybe this will cause him to have some second thoughts,” he said.

Cavenaugh added that there is a connotative difference between the drunk and intoxicated driver. The drunk, he said, is someone who has imbibed so heavily that he is unable to care for himself. “This is the stereotype, the guy who swerves from lane No. 1 to lane No. 4, from curb to curb,” he said. But most major accidents involving alcohol are caused by intoxicated drivers with blood alcohol levels hovering around .10, the legal limit, he said. The intoxicated driver has had several drinks but thinks he can still drive, Cavenaugh said.

‘Gridlock’ to Be Avoided

“He doesn’t believe he has been adversely impaired. The drunk, he knows he’s drunk,” Cavenaugh said.

Depending on traffic flow, police will stop cars randomly during Friday’s checkpoint, Cavenaugh said. “We don’t intend to gridlock the community to check the vehicles,” he said. Police will review the results of and reaction to Friday’s sobriety check before scheduling more, although additional checkpoints are expected to be set up during the Christmas holiday season, he said.

Cavenaugh said he could not comment on legal questions surrounding the checkpoints, stating that the police chief consulted with the city manager before planning Friday’s roadblock.

In Anaheim, police are eager to resume the sobriety checks but are awaiting a decision from the 4th District Court of Appeal, Lt. James Thalman said. The pending case involves a juvenile arrested at a sobriety checkpoint who has appealed his conviction.

Checkpoints Ruled Legal

The appellate court earlier refused to hear another case that developed out of an Anaheim checkpoint, Thalman said. That case involved an adult whose blood alcohol test results were thrown out by a Municipal Court, and that decision was upheld on appeal to Orange County Superior Court, he said. The 4th District Court of Appeal’s refusal to hear the case let stand the lower court’s decision.

However, the 1st District Court of Appeal has ruled the checkpoints legal, and Anaheim police hope that decision will “favorably impact on” the 4th District Court’s deliberations on the juvenile’s case, Thalman said.

Anaheim’s first checkpoint was on Dec. 20, 1984, and its last was on St. Patrick’s Day last year, Thalman said.

“We think they’re effective, not so much in the removal of drunk drivers but in the prevention of drunk drivers getting on the streets,” Thalman said. He said the city’s sobriety checkpoints resulted in lower rates of drunk driving accidents for periods of two to three months afterward.