CHP to Set Up 1st Sobriety Checkpoints Since Court’s OK

As traffic deaths and drunk-driving arrests climbed over the long holiday weekend, the California Highway Patrol on Friday set up roadblocks to check motorists’ sobriety for the first time since the state Supreme Court formally approved the practice last month.

CHP officers established a checkpoint on the westbound lanes of Rosecrans Avenue at Gramercy Place in an unincorporated section of southern Los Angeles County at 10 p.m., a CHP spokeswoman said. CHP units in other parts of the state were planning similar roadblocks, Officer Jill M. Angel said.

In the meantime, a special drunk-driving enforcement unit of up to 40 officers continued to pull intoxicated motorists off Southland highways.

Statewide, drunk-driving arrests during the first 36 hours of the long Thanksgiving weekend were up 10.6% over last year, to 832, said CHP communications supervisor Michael Eckley. As of 6 a.m. Friday, the traffic death toll across the state stood at 30, Eckley said, up from 25 last year.

In the CHP’s Southern Division, which includes Los Angeles and parts of adjacent counties, 11 people were killed in traffic between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Friday. Only three died in the same period last year, Eckley said.

Among those killed were an unidentified man driving a stolen FBI car in Orange County and a CHP officer who was struck by a car in Riverside County while ticketing another motorist.

The driver of the stolen FBI vehicle died early Friday when he lost control of the car and crashed into a fence after police pursued him through Tustin and Santa Ana at speeds of more than 100 m.p.h.

CHP Officer Mark Taylor, 28, was killed Thanksgiving Day on Interstate 10 near Cathedral City when he was hit and dragged several hundred feet by a car driven by Muriel Chumley, 79.

The sobriety roadblocks set up Friday were the first since a split California Supreme Court declared on Oct. 29 that any invasion of privacy caused by the checkpoints “is easily outweighed and justified by the magnitude of the drunk-driving menace and the potential for deterrence.”

In a strongly worded dissent, Justice Allen E. Broussard wrote, “Roadblocks will be everywhere. . . . This could mean 20 or 30 or more roadblocks in any urban area on any given night.”

The CHP began using roadblocks late in 1984 but suspended the practice in September, 1986, pending a ruling on its constitutionality by the state’s high court. During that time, Highway Patrol officers throughout California set up 189 checkpoints, where they arrested 1,134 motorists for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, said Angel of the CHP. The number of arrests was a very small portion of all those stopped, she said, but the precise figure was not immediately available.

“The No. 1 purpose for conducting sobriety checkpoints is the deterrence effect,” Angel said. “It’s another tool we have to stop people from drinking and driving.”

The Rosecrans site was chosen, Angel said, because it has been the scene of several fatal traffic accidents involving alcohol, including one about two weeks ago in which a 25-year-old woman was killed by a drunk driver.

Initial plans called for officers manning the roadblock to stop every car passing through the intersection. If traffic backed up, officers were to begin stopping every fifth or every tenth car, Angel said. The checkpoint was scheduled to operate from 10 p.m. Friday until 2 a.m. today, she added.

“Everyone will be funneled through the checkpoint lane,” she said. “If there’s no problem, motorists are sent on their way. If there is a need to give a field sobriety test, they will be funneled into a separate area where that will be done.”

Officers at the roadblock are looking for signs of apparent intoxication, such as an odor of liquor, beer or wine, slurred speech, glassy eyes or open alcoholic beverage containers, Angel said.