CHP Made Over 600 Arrests This Weekend

CHP checkpoints on major highways this weekend resulted in hundreds of arrests. © KTVU FOX 2.

Hundreds of motorists throughout California have been arrested for driving while intoxicated this Labor Day weekend.

Amid extraordinary heat and holiday traffic, some people still managed to get behind the wheel. California Highway Patrol stated that just thirty-six hours into the holiday weekend, they arrested more than six hundred people for driving drunk. All this came before the actual holiday, when soaring temperatures had yet to peak. Highway Patrol declared this weekend a “maximum enforcement period,” which ended Monday night. In total, CHP booked nearly eight hundred and fifty drivers.

“Alcohol and drug-impaired driving continues to be a leading cause of traffic fatalities and injuries in California, and the moment an impaired driver gets behind the wheel, they put themselves and every other person on the road in great danger,” said CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray in a news release. “The CHP is committed to enforcement and non-enforcement strategies, including education and community engagement, to ensure the highest level of safety for everyone traveling throughout California during the holiday.”

Drunk driving here doesn’t quite hold cultural weight like it does in places like Reno, where they eat cigarettes. Nevertheless it is a popular crime among the rich and famous, and not just celebrities. Paul Pelosi, husband of reviled senator Nancy Pelosi, crashed into another driver in Napa County in May 2022. Officers found Mr. Pelosi “unsteady on his feet. His speech was slurred, and he had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.”

Consequences for driving while intoxicated in California revolve around reduction and, ultimately, a stripping of one’s driving privileges. To get there however, one must offend repeatedly. It is unknown whether this was Mr. Pelosi’s first DUI. According to The Guardian, “Pelosi offered to officers his driver’s license along with an ’11-99 Foundation’ card when asked for identification. The 11-99 Foundation supports CHP employees and their families.” Pelosi posted bail at $5,000.

Hot take: California could take more aggressive action against drunk drivers. I am not calling for more police. Rather, I want better patrol, and harsher consequences. Last April, Tennessee politicians advanced a bill to the governor that would require intoxicated motorists to financially support the children of people they’ve killed. The law, known as “Ethan, Hailey and Bentley’s Law,” was named after three Tennessee children whose parents were killed by drunk drivers.

At least eighteen traffic fatalities occurred throughout the state this weekend. During Labor Day weekend last year, forty-three people died in vehicle collisions.