New Year's Weekend Enforcement Campaign Begins In Temecula Valley

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A holiday weekend crackdown targeting drunken and drugged drivers will get underway Friday evening in Riverside County.

The California Highway Patrol will initiate its New Year's "maximum enforcement period" at 6 p.m., when all available officers deploy to catch impaired motorists, speeders and other traffic violators. The enforcement campaign will continue until just before midnight on Monday.

Officers from the Riverside, Beaumont, Blythe, Indio and Temecula CHP stations will be on Inland Empire freeways, highways and unincorporated roads, looking to snare scofflaws.

"Impaired driving is a very serious crime that puts your life and the lives of others at risk," said CHP Acting Commissioner Warren Stanley. "Let's end this year safely and start the New Year by designating a sober driver, wearing your seat belt and observing all traffic laws."

Stanley emphasized that the legal use of marijuana under Proposition 64 does not mean it's now permissible for motorists to smoke up before getting behind the wheel.

"The legalization of cannabis does not change the effect it has on the central nervous system," he said. "Driving under the influence of cannabis and other drugs remains illegal."

During the New Year's maximum enforcement period that marked the end of 2016, the CHP arrested more than 750 DUI suspects statewide, while 29 people died in collisions on roads under the CHP's jurisdiction, according to the agency.

The holiday weekend crackdown coincides with an end-of-year anti-DUI campaign involving the Riverside County Sheriff's Department and multiple municipal law enforcement agencies countywide.

Officers and deputies have been conducting saturation patrols and staffing sobriety checkpoints to catch intoxicated drivers. Operations will conclude Monday night.

— By City News Service / Patch file photo by Renee Schiavone