Marin DUI Task Force Warns: Keep Your Party Off the Road This Halloween

The Marin County DUI Task Force is calling Halloween the deadliest night child pedestrians of the entire year, warning would be drunk or drugged drivers that officers are planning an aggressive enforcement day.

Police, sheriff and CHP officers will crack down on drunk and drugged drivers throughout the region this Thursday, with a Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement effort, stating in a press release, “The Avoid the 13 DUI Task Force has given a fair warning to all partygoers: keep the party off the road.”

“The scariest part of Halloween is not the spooky costumes and scary pranks, it’s the impaired drivers. All too often, partygoers don’t plan ahead and choose to drive impaired, but a costume can’t disguise drunk driving,” said San Rafael’s Police Chief Diana Bishop.

In addition to already scheduled routine patrols, the Avoid the 13 DUI Task Force will be deploying additional patrols throughout the county on Thursday, October 31st in order to stop and arrest alcohol or drug impaired drivers.

The release explains:

Halloween is one of the deadliest holidays of the year on our roadways. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), from 2007-2011, 52 percent of all national fatalities occurring on Halloween night involved a drunk driver.  Males ages 21-34 comprised almost half of all drunk drivers who were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes nationwide during the 2011 Halloween period. It is also the deadliest night for child pedestrians of any night of the whole year.

“If you celebrate with alcohol, you don’t belong behind the wheel.” Chief Bishop said. “A sober and safe ride after the party is the best treat you can give yourself and everyone else on the road this Halloween.”

To keep safe this Halloween, the Avoid the 13 Marin County DUI Task Force recommends these tips:

• Before the Halloween festivities begin, plan a way to safely get home at the end of the night.
• Always designate a sober driver.
• If you are impaired, take a taxi, call a sober friend or family member, or use public transportation.
• Walking impaired can be just as dangerous as drunk driving.  Designate a sober friend to walk you home.
• If you see a drunk driver on the road, contact local law enforcement.
• If you know someone who is about to drive or ride while impaired, take their keys and help them make safe travel arrangements to where they are going.  If you think you have to ask if they are okay to drive, you already know they’re not.

Funding for this operation is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.