Deputies Beef up Patrols to Catch Drivers Under the Influence Friday

Deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department DUI Enforcement Team will be deploying this weekend to stop and arrest alcohol and drug-impaired drivers in the Department’s ongoing traffic safety campaign. 

DUI Saturation Patrols will deploy at 7 p.m. Friday until 3 a.m. Saturday in the cities of Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods and Aliso Viejo.  These patrols will be targeting areas with high frequencies of DUI collisions and/or arrests.

After falling dramatically for five straight years, figures for 2012 showed an increase in deaths because someone failed to designate a sober driver. Over the course of the last three years, DUI collisions have claimed 57 lives and resulted in 497 injuries within the Sheriff Department’s contracted areas of Orange County.

DUI can impact the economy in addition to the pain and suffering of those immediately affected. Conservatively, a fatality has a $1.4 million impact, an injury $70,000, and a crash that only damages property averages nearly $9,000.

The goal of this program is to reduce the rate at which the citizens of Orange County are killed or injured in DUI related collisions. Through implementation of these events, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department hopes to significantly reduce deaths, injuries and property damage in each of our contract cities.