Local News in Brief : Banners Note Season, Warn Drunk Drivers

Authorities said Sunday that banners raised over streets in the San Fernando Valley during the weekend are meant to save lives as well as deliver a message of holiday cheer.

The banners, strung by Los Angeles police and firefighters across 30 of the area’s main streets, warn against the dangers of drinking and driving. Police said Christmas is too often a season that results in high numbers of drunk drivers on the streets.

“It is a time of more parties and more drinking,” said Sgt. Douglas Reid of the Valley Traffic Division. “So, it becomes one of our busiest times.”

The banners, paid for by local members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Los Angeles City Council members, will remain throughout the holidays, police said. They deliver a season’s greeting from police and the council members, and give the warning, “Don’t Drink and Drive.”

While the banners are a high-profile effort to curtail drunk driving, police also plan several sweeps to arrest drunk drivers and other crackdowns during the holidays, authorities said.

Police statistics show that 21 people were killed and 179 injured in accidents involving drunk driving in the Valley from Jan. 1 through Nov. 30. During the same period last year, there were 19 fatalities and 175 injuries in drunk-driving accidents.

Reid said drunk-driving arrests are up in the Valley. Police made 5,110 arrests for driving under the influence between Jan. 1 and Oct. 1, he said. In the same period last year, there were 4,366 arrests.

On Dec. 5, a single sweep in Pacoima resulted in 86 arrests for drunk driving.