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Crime & Safety

Seal Beach Police to Hold DUI Checkpoint Friday

Local officials received a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety to fund the checkpoint.

Don’t drive drunk.

And that goes double for anyone planning to cruise Seal Beach this Friday.

The Seal Beach Police Department will hold a DUI/driver’s license checkpoint in the city from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. Friday.

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At an undisclosed location, officers from the Seal Beach Police Department Traffic Unit will check drivers for signs of alcohol or drug impairment, as well as make sure drivers have their licenses.

Drivers charged with driving impaired can face jail, license suspension, and insurance increases, as well as fines, fees, DUI classes and other expenses that can cost more than $10,000.

Find out what's happening in Los Alamitos-Seal Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to the SBPD, research shows alcohol-related crashes drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often.

“DUI checkpoints have been an essential part of the phenomenal reduction in DUI deaths that we witnessed since 2006 in California,” said Christopher Murphy, director of the California Office of Traffic Safety, in a written statement.  “But since the tragedy of DUI accounts for nearly one-third of traffic fatalities, Seal Beach needs the high visibility enforcement and public awareness that checkpoints provide.”

In 2011, nearly 10,000 people were killed nationally in motor vehicle traffic crashes that involved at least one driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration of .08% or higher, according to the SBPD. In California, drunk driving claimed 774 lives. 

The SBPD received funding for the checkpoint through a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

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