Gilroy
– Expect to see extra police on the roads from now through
Monday, looking for drunk drivers, speeders and other lawbreakers
throughout the Bay Area.
Gilroy – Expect to see extra police on the roads from now through Monday, looking for drunk drivers, speeders and other lawbreakers throughout the Bay Area.
The Labor Day weekend is the worst of six holiday periods in terms of fatalities related to driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, according to California Highway Patrol statistics. Labor Day is second only to the Independence Day weekend in terms of DUI-related injuries.
The CHP’s Gilroy-Hollister division will have roughly one-and-a-half times the number of officers as normal patrolling south Santa Clara Valley roads, according to spokeswoman Terry Mayes. The CHP has allocated some overtime pay to accomplish this, she said.
“We have basically every available body scheduled,” Mayes said. “Other than the people who are on vacations, everybody’s scheduled.”
The Gilroy Police Department will put several officers on DUI-enforcement duty Friday, Saturday and perhaps Sunday nights but will not bring in extra personnel, according to spokesman Sgt. Kurt Svardal.
In Morgan Hill, two patrol units will be specifically looking for suspected drunken drivers through Monday night, said Lt. Joe Sampson.
Neither local agency will stage sobriety checkpoints this weekend, but there will be checkpoints in the cities of Alameda, Antioch, Berkeley, Newark, Oakland, Pleasanton, Pleasant Hill, San Francisco, San Mateo, San Pablo, Suisun City, Larkspur/Corte Madera and an undisclosed location in Palo Alto, Los Altos or Mountain View.
