Police to Start Sober Graduation Program
With the approaching spate of spring activities and celebrations marking the end of the school year, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division and the California Highway Patrol will dispatch officers to speak at more than 20 Valley high schools beginning Tuesday as part of the Sober Graduation program.
Officers’ presentations are an attempt to reduce the number of accidents among young adults caused by drinking and driving, said organizers of the program that began in 1985.
Traffic accidents increase toward the end of the year because young adults, who begin to experiment with alcohol during proms and graduation celebrations, do not understand their limitations, Officer Frank Sandoval of the California Highway Patrol said.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington, D.C., in 1996 there were 3,387 fatally injured drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 who were involved in alcohol-related accidents.
Sandoval said the program will use displays of wrecked cars to show what can happen in a drunk-driving accident.
Members of the CHP’s West Valley office and the LAPD’s Valley Traffic Division also will make presentations in Agoura Hills and Calabasas.
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