DUI Checkpoints Begin at 7pm Friday Night; Two Are in Petaluma

Pre-holiday revelers celebrating with drinks tonight are reminded to designate a driver as law enforcement agencies throughout the Bay Area will be out in force to catch drunk drivers.

DUI checkpoints will be in place in a number of Bay Area communities tonight, including San Francisco, Burlingame, East Palo Alto, El Cerrito, Martinez, Morgan Hill, Redwood City and Santa Clara, as well as in Monterey County.

In Petaluma, Patch editor Cody Kitaura reports two DUI checkpoints will be in place Friday night.

Officers will man most checkpoints beginning at 7 p.m. in an ongoing effort to keep impaired drivers off of the streets.

In El Cerrito, where police arrested at least 10 people on suspicion of DUI last weekend alone, officers will be equipped with hand-held breath-testing devices and will stop vehicles to check drivers for both drug and alcohol impairment, according to police. "Each holiday season, members of our community are needlessly maimed and killed on California roadways," said El Cerrito police Sgt. Shawn Maples. "Our goal is to ensure the safe passage of each and every motorist by targeting areas where there is a high frequency of drunk drivers."

Funding for the DUI checkpoints comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety, via the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Anyone who spots a drunk driver is encouraged to call 911.

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