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July 9, 2008
Valley Sobriety Check on Friday
Here's a statistic that is saddening. There have been over 130 collisions involving an intoxicated driver this year. And that's only for the West Valley Division that covers neighborhoods like Canoga Park and West Hills. That's only one police division out of six in the San Fernando Valley. Throughout the Valley, there have been over 550 DUI related crashes.
Not only does West Valley have the highest number of DUI related collisions for the Valley, it also has highest number of hit and runs. Get ready for this number. There have been 991 hit and runs as of June 28. Valleywide, the number is shocking: 4,025 hit and runs for the first six months of the year (and Valley Traffic is just one of four traffic divisions in the city)
To that end, the Valley Traffic Division of the LAPD is running one of their Sobriety Check Points on Friday night between Desoto and Canoga Avenues on Sherman Way.
So what's going on in the West Valley? Why does this suburban like neighborhood of Los Angeles have some of the highest statistics? "It's got the huge wide streets, which is almost like raceways, which causes people to speed, which causes accidents," explained Sergeant Robert Kirk of the Valley Traffic Division.
The DUI checkpoints are funded by a state grant and there will be four more in the Valley by September 30.
Photo by BarelyFitz via Flickr
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I'd rather be on jury duty or slightly impaled on another fence than be tested on the side of the road again. (I wasn't even stopped for bad driving, but a defunct taillight, and due to the time and proximity of a bar, I was asked to step out of my car, etc. I passed, by the way.)
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I support better enforcement, however I don't think the issue is going to fade away without long term goals to shift people out of cars for hitting up bars and clubs. Efficient transit in Los Angeles is lacking in many areas even at peak times but late at night when most of these DUI's occur, transit service is plain abysmal and Taxi's incredibly expensive. As long as we have bars and clubs filled with drivers we will have irresponsible people on roads creating a hazard for everyone around them. It would be nice to believe in the idea of designated drivers, but in practice there are still many who don't care.
The arbitrary closing of all bars at 2:00am also exacerbates the issue by releasing them all at once and not all of them take the time to sober up. I don't see the benefit in a mandatory closing at a particular time, what advantage is there to that?