Cops Crackdown on Holiday Drunks

Don't be stupid!

​Your once-a-year holiday reprieve from sobriety checkpoints over Thanksgiving has come and gone. Starting tomorrow, cops will be swarming the Bay Area highways and local streets, looking for drunk and drugged-out drivers on the road.

It's part of a 17-day crackdown to deter those of you who consider holiday cheer a bottle of vodka from getting behind the wheel.

Expect intense DUI patrols, and six days of maximum freeway enforcement by the California Highway Patrol. In San Francisco, the first DUI checkpoint will be on Sunday.

Keep reading and we will give you the details.

Cops will begin monitoring drivers on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. on 19th Avenue at Winston Drive. And there's more sobriety checkpoints to come, including one on Dec. 23 and again on New Year's Eve, according to San Francisco police.

"Everyone who pins on a badge in this city has an eagle eye for DUI," Capt. Al Casciato said. "Drive sober, or we'll be there to pull you over and prevent you from hurting or killing yourself or a perfectly innocent stranger."

This enhanced holiday enforcement ends at midnight on New Year's Day.

Cops took 100 DUI suspects to jail during last year's 17-day winter crackdown, a 16 percent increase from 2009. Nobody was killed by a drunk driver either of those years.

Casciato recommends nominating a designated driver to make sure everyone in the group gets home safely. He's also urging people who see drivers swerving on the road to dial 911 on their cell phones and report it. "Don't worry about being cited for not using a hands-free set -- it's an exception to the law," he said.

Follow us on Twitter at @TheSnitchSF and @SFWeekly