July 4th weekend DUI crackdown planned for Sonoma County

Sonoma County law enforcement officials are planning an aggressive campaign over the Fourth of July weekend, aimed at catching drunken drivers and discouraging potential ones.

In Santa Rosa, five DUI checkpoints will be deployed between July 1 and July 3. Checkpoints will also be held in Cloverdale and Healdsburg between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m.

The California Highway Patrol will deploy a “maximum enforcement period” during the three-day weekend with all available officers patrolling freeways and Sonoma County roadways.

The operations are part of the Avoid the 13 Sonoma County DUI task force, a multi-agency law enforcement effort.

“Don’t even think about drinking and driving this Fourth of July. We will be actively looking for impaired drivers and we will show zero tolerance for drunk drivers!” Santa Rosa Police Chief Hank Schreeder said in a statement.

Officials said that between 2010 and 2014, 39 percent of all traffic fatalities over the July 4 weekend involved alcohol-related crashes. In 2014, 397 people were killed nationally during the July 4 holiday.