Holiday Season Brings Crackdown On Bay Area Drunk Driving
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- The annual statewide crackdown on drunk driving is in full swing.
Throughout the state, 540 police agencies are taking part in the 17-day "Avoid" campaign that started a week ago Friday. San Francisco Police Captain Al Casciato is the campaign coordinator for the department.
"If you're coming to a checkpoint and you have been drinking, you're giving yourself an incredibly terrible Christmas present," he said.
KCBS' Anna Duckworth Reports:
Casciato said a DUI arrest costs about $10,000, stays on your record for ten years, impacts insurance and can even impact your employment.
"If you're applying for a job and two people are equal and you have a drunk driving on your record and the other person has a clean record, they're going to select that person over you," said Casciato.
In the two checkpoints in San Francisco so far, Casciato said six people have been arrested for DUI and 14 cars have been impounded.
He said the intent of the "Avoid" campaign isn't to arrest everyone. It's to educate people about the importance of never getting behind the wheel intoxicated.
"You have to consider yourself lucky if you didn't get involved in an accident and injure somebody, which would be a lifetime burden," Casciato said.
Police are doing saturation patrols in various neighborhoods. The "Avoid" campaign ends on January 2.
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