By Bay City News Service:
Law enforcement officers in Marin County will be cracking down on drunken driving around the Cinco de Mayo holiday a week from Monday to stop impaired drivers, San Rafael police announce.
The county's Avoid the 13 Task Force will be begin its DUI patrols in anticipation of the annual commemoration with a DUI and driver's license checkpoint this Friday in San Rafael from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher said.
The task force, made up of a coalition of 10 policing agencies in Marin County, will then deploy DUI saturation patrols throughout the weekend with special emphasis on Cinco de Mayo, May 3, Rohrbacher said.
Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican heritage celebratory event that often includes alcohol use by revelers, is one of the most dangerous days of the year for accidents caused by drunken driving, according to San Rafael police Lt. Alan Piombo.
The number of people killed in DUI collisions on Cinco de Mayo in the United States more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, and 71 percent of the drunken drivers in 2012 had blood-alcohol levels that measured .15 or more, nearly twice the legal limit in California, Piombo said.
The law enforcement agencies to be taking part in the DUI crackdown include the San Rafael, Mill Valley, Novato, Tiburon, Belvedere, Fairfax and Sausalito police departments, the Marin County Sheriff's Office, Marin Community College Police and the Ross Department of Public Safety.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
