CHP will be out in full force for the remainder of January solely to catch drunk drivers.
If you regularly are in the habit of driving with the slightest buzz you may want to check yourself before you wreck yourself or the California Highway Patrol will do it for you. According to the CHP in an official announcement on their social media feeds earlier yesterday (Jan. 23,2018) they will be taking a zero-tolerance approach to dealing with DUI offenders and will be putting extra staff on patrol to deal with drunk driving. This push to stem this unconscionable behavior results from five CHP officers being hit by vehicles in the past 27 days after they stepped out of their vehicles to provide assistance to another motorist. In addition, CHP dropped a chilling video showing what some of these officers experienced first hand.
It’s not clear whether the video they dropped was one of the five incidents they cited but the footage is chilling nonetheless. One second a pair of officers is either assisting a motorist or writing a ticket and the next both jump out of the way as a Ford Explorer comes sliding into the back of the car they’re assisting. It looks like one of the officers makes his way out but the other officer looks to be pinned.
Out of the five cases mentioned, three were because of DUIs with one of those three resulting in an officer fatality. The other two incidents garnered minor injuries from the officer’s that were affected with the remaining two incidents not because of DUI but noteworthy nonetheless.
Zero tolerance is serious business for CHP. That means they’re taking out extra funds and putting out any and all available personnel for the sole purpose of catching DUIs.
As a show of force, all available personnel, including command staff, middle managers, supervisors, and officers have committed to proactively patrol all state highways with a zero tolerance approach to drunk and/ or drugged drivers. Through funding support of the Office of Traffic Safety, CHP task forces will “rove” San Francisco Bay Area freeways looking for impaired drivers.
One DUI is too many, although unrealistic, but it’s another anomaly altogether when you have a string of DUI’s that cause the deaths or serious injury to CHP officers.
Be warned California drivers, at least the CHP gave you a heads up, but if they do catch you driving under the influence get ready for a consequence handed out to the full extent of the law.
