Police to conduct DUI checkpoints Saturday

Laguna Beach police officers will fan out across the city on Saturday to stop and arrest alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers as part of the department’s ongoing traffic safety campaign.

Officers will staff checkpoints in areas with high frequencies of DUI collisions and/or arrests from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday.

Laguna Beach police arrested five people during a previous checkpoint on March 16, Capt. Jason Kravetz said.

DUIs led to 774 deaths in California in 2010, according to a police-issued release.

“Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions have resulted in 60 injury crashes harming 85 of our friends and neighbors,” Laguna Beach police Lt. Jeff Calvert said in the release.

A DUI-related fatality has an estimated $1.4 million impact — $70,000 for injuries and $9,000 in property damage, the release said.

A grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, funded the safety campaign.

To report drunk drivers, call 911.

—Bryce Alderton