Countywide : Bright Idea for Holidays: Drive Sober

Besides the usual highway hazards of bad weather and drivers who may have had a few too many holiday drinks, law enforcement officers are concerned that speed limits on the state’s freeways are going up just before Christmas this year.

To remind motorists to drive safely and soberly, police agencies across Orange County and the nation today are observing “Lights on for Life.”

Officers and other government employees will drive with their vehicle headlights on all day to remind motorists to proceed with caution.

The program, which police agencies invite the driving public to join, is also a memorial to people killed or injured in alcohol- or drug-related accidents.

“If you drink, if you use intoxicants, don’t drive. It’s that simple,” said Capt. Don Henderson, commander of the California Highway Patrol in the Westminster area.

Henderson also issued a reminder to motorists that higher speed limits do not take effect until highway signs have been changed.

“If it says 55, go 55,” he said.

Henderson was among representatives of Southern California law enforcement agencies who assembled at Anaheim Stadium on Thursday to kick off this year’s “Lights on for Life” campaign.

The program was created in 1992 by the California Office of Traffic Safety and adopted nationwide in 1994 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Stepped-up efforts to arrest drivers impaired by alcohol or drugs will begin tonight in Orange County, Henderson said, in anticipation of numerous holiday parties this weekend.

Enforcement strategies will include sobriety checkpoints Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

Over the Christmas and New Year’s weekends, the Highway Patrol will deploy up to 80% of its personnel in a “maximum enforcement” push to get impaired drivers off the road, Henderson said.

Statistics released by the CHP indicate that 1,488 people were killed and 39,437 injured in alcohol-involved traffic collisions in California last year. The toll in Orange County last year was 53 dead and 1,875 injured in alcohol-involved accidents.