For Drinking Drivers, a Cause to Pause

‘Tis the season not to get caught driving drunk, because you’ll be thrown in the slammer, fingerprinted and photographed, and then you’ll have to post $1,250 bail to get out eight hours or more later.

The full-fledged jail booking--versus the County Jail’s usual quick-release program for suspected drunk drivers--is just one tactic law enforcement agencies in San Diego County will be employing this holiday season to give drinking drivers cause to pause.

In addition, every police department in the county as well as the California Highway Patrol and the Sheriff’s Department will be setting up roadside sobriety checkpoints during the next two weeks in the first such orchestrated, countywide attempt to deter drunk driving, officials said.

“You won’t be safe anywhere in the county if you’re drinking and driving,” Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Alan Fulmer said of the joint effort among the various policing agencies.

The two-pronged campaign--the roadside sobriety checkpoints and the lengthy booking into County Jail--is designed to deter drivers from drinking in the first place and to keep them off the road for at least eight hours if they are caught, officers say.

The jail’s quick-release program is used to reduce jail overcrowding by allowing drunk drivers to be released to a sober, responsible party as soon as they have completed their alcohol tests.

But the Sheriff’s Department is out to teach drunk driving suspects a lesson this holiday season by subjecting them to the regular--and more lengthy--booking process.

“Sure we have a jail (overcrowding) crisis, but during the holiday season, it’s more important to keep those drunk drivers off the road,” Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Coppes said. “With the quick-release program, a driver can be on the road again and arrested again within a matter of hours. Now, the driver’s going to be in jail for at least eight hours. (Sheriff John) Duffy said he’ll squeeze them in and find a place to put them all.”

The concept of countywide sobriety checkpoints was endorsed by the San Diego County Chiefs’ and Sheriff’s Assn.

The various cities will not announce the specific locations of the checkpoints until just prior to their being established. The San Diego Police Department, for instance, will establish a sobriety checkpoint from 10 p.m. Saturday through about 3 a.m. Sunday, but will not publicly announce the location of the checkpoint until 8 p.m. Saturday, said Lt. Bill Skinner, who coordinates the program for the San Diego Police Deparment.

“We hope people won’t tend to drink so much if they’re not sure where they’re going to encounter a checkpoint,” Skinner said. “The whole point of the

checkpoints is not to make arrests, but to deter drivers from drinking and to get people at a party to think, before they have one more drink, that they might encounter one on the way home.

“We’d be delighted if we could go the entire holiday period without arresting a single driver--and not having a single alcohol-related accident,” Skinner said. “But realistically, we don’t see that happening.”

So far this month, the San Diego Police Department has operated three sobriety checkpoints, stopped more than 3,000 motorists and arrested about two dozen drivers on suspicion of drunk driving, said police department spokesman Bill Robinson.

“Ninety-nine percent of the drivers appreciate our being there. The other 1% are the ones who are either drunk or really rushed to finish their holiday shopping,” Robinson said.

He noted that there have been 110 traffic fatalities this year, through Nov. 30, and that 1987 will undoubtedly eclipse the previous record of 114 fatalities in a single year, set in 1982. More than half of those deaths, Robinson said, were in accidents where alcohol was a factor.

California Highway Patrol Sgt. Harry Pfohl said that in addition to establishing its own sobriety checkpoints on highways in San Diego County, the CHP will increase its patrol manpower by more than 20% during the holiday period, including extra patrol cars specifically on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Again this year, the volunteer Safe-Rides program will be instituted in which high school students needing a safe ride home on a Friday or Saturday night can get one by calling 447-SADD.

Safe-Rides is a student-run volunteer organization that provides rides from 10 p.m. through 3 a.m. with the promise of confidentiality. Teen-agers under adult volunteer supervision staff dispatching offices in Fallbrook, San Marcos, Escondido, Penasquitos, Torrey Pines, Point Loma and El Cajon.

The rides are not only extended to persons who believe they have drunk too much, but also to assist persons who might be totally sober but nonetheless feel trapped at a function or are afraid of date-rape and want an independent ride home, said Vaughan de Kirby, a San Diego attorney and Safe-Rides spokesman.

Last year, Safe-Rides offered between 5 and 10 rides home nightly from each of its dispatching offices, de Kirby said.

“No questions are asked, no records are kept, and no parents or authorities are told,” he said. “We want to encourage kids to use the program. We don’t want a kid killing himself because he was afraid to use the service because parents might find out.”

He said 22 teen-agers were killed in alcohol-related accidents last year in San Diego County.