Law enforcement agencies throughout the region and state will be on the lookout for drunken drivers during the Labor Day weekend.
Several agencies are planning sobriety checkpoints, and the California Highway Patrol will place 80 percent of its officers on the road over three-day weekend.
The stepped-up enforcement follows an announcement that traffic deaths in California fell to their lowest level in history last year.
Elk Grove police will set up a drunken driving and driver's license checkpoint at 8 o'clock tonight.
Officers will check for impaired and unlicensed drivers, and will distribute educational materials detailing the dangers of drunken driving, police Officer Christopher Trim said.
The checkpoint is funded through a selective Traffic Enforcement Program grant by the state Office of Traffic Safety.
Residents also are encouraged to call police at (916) 714-5111 or 911 if they observe impaired motorists on the roadways.
The Avoid the Eight DUI Enforcement Task Force will conduct a sobriety checkpoint from 9 o'clock tonight to 3 a.m. Saturday in the area of Richards Boulevard at Olive Drive, a news release states.
Participating agencies include the CHP, Yolo County Sheriff's Department, Yolo County Probation Department and the Davis, West Sacramento, Winters, Woodland and UC Davis police departments.
The program is funded through a grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Motorists also may noticed an increased CHP presence from 6 p.m. today through midnight Monday throughout the state.
Officers will be looking for motorists who are speeding, driving while intoxicated and not wearing seat belts - the three major causes of highway deaths, according to a CHP news release.
Labor Day weekend is one of the CHP's six "maximum enforcement periods," the release states.
The worst Labor Day weekend death toll was in 1980, when 81 people were killed on California roadways. Last year, 49 people were killed over Labor Day weekend. If fatalities kept pace with population growth, there would have been between 150 to 160 deaths last year, the CHP reports.
The CHP also will emphasize patrols on Interstates 5, 15 and 80 this weekend, as part of the department's Operation CARE - Combined Accident Reduction Effort - program.
Call The Bee's Niesha Lofing, (916) 321-1270.
