Campaign to Target Drunk Drivers
Police throughout Orange County say they will drive with their headlights on even during daylight hours today in an effort to focus attention on the dangers posed by drunk drivers.
Local police will be joining the California Highway Patrol and other police and sheriff departments throughout the state in the “Lights On for Life” campaign. They also ask the public to participate by doing the same in remembrance of the people killed or injured in alcohol-involved crashes.
Police plan to apply an on-the-spot license-suspension law that empowers them to take away the driver’s license of any motorist arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Since the law went into effect in July, 1990, a total of 525,609 driver’s licenses have been suspended in California, police said.
Before the law was introduced, licenses could be suspended only by a judge.
CHP statistics show that alcohol-involved driving fatalities have declined sharply since the law went into effect.
In 1991, 2,048 people were killed in alcohol-involved collisions in the state, down 334 deaths from 1990, police said.
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