No doubt many Californians ventured out to celebrate the long weekend holiday. When they did, they might have noticed that the California Highway Patrol (CHP) was out in force.
Starting on Friday night, the CHP were patrolling the highways and roadways in Riverside County, looking for drunken and impaired drivers. They were also keeping an eye out for other traffic violations.
Called a “maximum enforcement period” or MEP, it got underway at around 6 p.m. on Friday night and will not conclude until around midnight on Tuesday.
All available officers from Beaumont, Indio, Riverside, and Temecula were deployed in a targeted crackdown. This crackdown coincided with saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints taking place in other municipalities.
During last year’s Labor Day MEP, CHP officers arrested more than 1,200 motorists on suspicion of driving under the influence. Thirty-two people tragically lost their lives throughout California that weekend. According to the CHP, seven of those victims were not wearing their seatbelts.
In 2014, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records that 40% of the fatalities during Labor Day Weekend involved drivers who were drunk or had been impaired by other drugs.
The MEP occurring this weekend is part of the NHTSA’s “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign.
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