Police Ready for Revelers Who Imbibe, Then Drive

Police will be patrolling the streets and freeways in full force this New Year’s weekend in an effort to arrest drunk drivers and prevent holiday traffic carnage.

In addition, beer distributors are joining with two taxicab companies to give free rides to revelers who have had too much to drink, a towing firm is transporting imbibers and their vehicles safely home for free in six north and central Orange County cities, and some hotels are offering discounts on rooms so that drinking guests can take the elevator home.

While tradition calls for ringing in the New Year with overflowing champagne glasses, officials are hoping more sober sensibilities will prevail, in light of the lower blood-alcohol level for drunk driving, plus the growing awareness that driving while intoxicated can cost not only money but lives.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving and law enforcement officials are urging people to abstain by drinking beer and champagne that are nonalcoholic, or soft drinks, or to have a designated, sober driver to transport them home.

“If I was having a party for New Year’s Eve, I would have more nonalcoholic drinks than alcoholic drinks, and would certainly push the nonalcoholic because that’s protecting my friends,” said Janet Cater, administrator of MADD’s Orange County chapter. “We were really pleased there was not one (alcohol-related) fatality over Christmas, and we hope and pray we will have an equal success over New Year’s.”

Even with the heightened campaign for a sober New Year’s celebration, several law enforcement officials said they expect drunk driving arrests to be up this year because of the lower blood-alcohol level of 0.08%. Last year, the level for driving under the influence was 0.10%, up until the first second of Jan. 1, when the lower level took effect. There were more than 250 DUI arrests last New Year’s weekend in Orange County.

Nowhere will the drunk driving vigilance be stronger this weekend than in Costa Mesa, where the Police Department will increase its drunk driving patrol teams ninefold from 6:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve to 3:30 a.m. New Year’s Day. Nine two-officer patrol cars will scour the city streets, assisted by the police helicopter watching for erratic drivers from the air. In addition, there will be a special transport van to take the suspected drunk drivers from the scene of the arrest to the city jail, enabling the patrol officers to spend more time on the streets looking for drunk drivers. The jail will have extra staff that night too.

“Our philosophy is zero tolerance,” said Sgt. Tom Winter. “If you’re drinking and driving, you’re probably going to go to jail. We don’t tolerate drunk drivers. They kill and maim too many people. If you drink, we suggest you use a designated driver or take a cab. Anything.”

This will be Costa Mesa’s third year of the intensified nine-hour New Year’s Eve patrol. Last year it yielded 46 drunk driving arrests--more than half the arrests made in all of Orange County during that night, Winter said.

It is not that Costa Mesa has more bars or drinkers, said Sue Crouse, a spokeswoman for the city. There are a lot of major thoroughfares that connect Costa Mesa with other communities, so lots of drivers pass through, she said. “And we just work it harder. We don’t do sobriety checkpoints. We’d rather be out on the streets stopping every driver we think is drunk.”

The four small cities of Cypress, Seal Beach, La Palma and Los Alamitos have pooled their efforts into what they call the West Orange County Safe Driver Program. From 8 p.m. Monday to 4 a.m. Tuesday, the program will double its usual weekend efforts and send a total of four patrol cars out, concentrating on the cities of Seal Beach and Los Alamitos.

On Saturday night, the California Highway Patrol operated a sobriety checkpoint along Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, and Santa Ana police held one at the 1200 block of South Bristol Street. The Highway Patrol will be at “maximum enforcement” levels this weekend, with extra officers on patrol from each of the agency’s three offices in the county, and police departments throughout the county reported they are stepping up patrols.

MADD administrator Cater warned that it does not take too much alcohol--usually only two drinks--to make the average person reach the 0.08% blood-alcohol level. It takes more than one hour for each drink to wear off, she said, so a person who has had two drinks should wait two hours, without alcohol, before getting behind the wheel. Drinking coffee will not sober a person up by itself, she said, but it will help pass the time.

For the New Year’s Eve reveler who has drunk too much and should not drive, there is another way home. Free cab rides will be provided to restaurant and bar patrons in north and central Orange County through Taxi Time, a program sponsored by two cab companies--Yellow Cab of North Orange County and Orange Coast Yellow Cab--and by five Orange County beer distributors.

The program began Dec. 21 and will continue through the last minutes of Jan. 1. Patrons who have had too much to drink or bartenders can call (714) 535-2211 in the north part of the county, and (714) 546-1311 in the coastal and central regions. Cab drivers will even mark down where the patrons’ cars are parked so that the tipsy customers will know where to retrieve the vehicles later.

The cabs probably will be much in demand New Year’s Eve and there might be long delays, so the program sponsors still encourage people to use designated drivers.

“It’s smarter to think about who will drive before the partying begins, but in case you don’t, the establishment can call and get a cab. . . . We understand people are more likely to have one too many during this weekend, and this is a service we are happy to provide for our retailers (the restaurants and bars) to keep intoxicated people off the roads,” said Kevin Markee, director of community affairs for Straub Distributing Co. Other beer distributors involved in Taxi Time are Coors Distributing Co., Consolidated Beverage Distributors, Quality Beer Distributors and Southland Beverage Inc.

The program provides cab rides only as far south as Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and Trabuco and Silverado canyons. Free cab rides are not provided from parties in private homes, or from one bar to another, he said.

Intoxicated people can also stay off the road by calling Tri-Star Towing in Orange, which will give the drinkers a ride home and tow their vehicle, free, in the cities of Anaheim, Orange, Placentia, Fullerton, Brea and Yorba Linda. The service is available 24 hours a day through Jan. 1, and the towing limit is 5 miles. For the service, call (714) 771-7111 or (800) 323-TOWS.

Some Alcoholics Anonymous chapters are sponsoring New Year’s Eve alcohol-free parties. The Anaheim chapter at 202 W. Broadway will have a sandwich buffet, band and disc jockey. The party is open to anyone who pays $5 and does not arrive intoxicated or with alcohol. In addition, the chapter is holding a round-the-clock marathon session that began Saturday night and will conclude at 11 p.m. Jan. 1.

A “Sober Dance”--which last year drew 1,400 young people--will be held again by the Orange County Young Person’s Alcoholics Anonymous club at the Anaheim Convention Center, beginning at 10 p.m. Monday. The dance, which will feature a laser-light show, costs $10 per person and “is open to anyone as long as they don’t bring drugs or alcohol or weapons,” said a member of the sponsoring club. “It’s our way of ringing in the New Year sober.”

Organizers of New Year’s Eve parties at commercial establishments said they are taking steps to prevent revelers from driving home intoxicated. Many, such as the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana, will serve free nonalcoholic beverages to designated drivers.

Comedyland in the Anaheim Plaza Resort Hotel is offering a nonalcoholic beverage instead of champagne.

Guests attending the Pacific Symphony Orchestra Gala at the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel can reserve a room at a reduced rate.

Huntington Beach’s Holiday Inn will offer reduced rates to all revelers at Old World across the street.

The hotel discounts are “good merchandising for them,” said MADD’s Cater. “And it’s certainly a less expensive alternative to being arrested or causing a lifetime tragedy.”

Times staff writer Bill Billiter and correspondents Rose Apodaca, Tom McQueeney, Erik Hamilton and Frank Messina contributed to this story.