Local law enforcement officials speculate: Is it the long weekend or the allure of the outdoors, graduation season or the promise of summer?

For whatever reason, they say, the rush of people hitting the road for vacations and outings over Memorial Day weekend typically coincides with more impaired drivers choosing to get behind the wheel.

"DUI death rates tend to go up around various holidays, including Memorial Day," said Chris Cochran, spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety. "This is the traditional beginning of summer, a celebration time."

Starting tonight, in an effort to discourage those who imbibe too much from deciding to drive, many law enforcement agencies are ramping up their DUI enforcement with sobriety checkpoints and roving DUI patrols.

The Office of Traffic Safety and California Highway Patrol have both designated the weekend a maximum enforcement period.

Sacramento County's DUI task force will set up a sobriety checkpoint tonight in Citrus Heights, another checkpoint in Elk Grove on Saturday night and a saturation patrol in Elk Grove on Sunday, said Citrus Heights police spokesman Officer Anthony Boehle. Also starting tonight through Monday, the majority of available CHP officers in Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties will patrol freeways and county roads in their jurisdiction looking for impaired drivers.

Statewide, rates of DUI-related collisions and fatalities during the Memorial Day weekend have fallen steadily over the past several years, according to data from the Office of Traffic Safety.

Preliminary OTS statistics from last Memorial Day weekend indicate there were 368 injuries and six deaths due to alcohol-related collisions statewide – a significant drop in fatalities from the 18 in 2009.

In Sacramento County last year, DUI-related collisions resulted in six injuries and no deaths, compared with double-digit injury collisions during the holiday weekend in 2007 and 2008.

The decrease, a trend seen recently in many categories of traffic deaths and injuries, is due largely to an emphasis since 2005 on enforcement and public awareness campaigns about the dangers of drunken driving, Cochran said.

Other local enforcement activities reportedly scheduled for this weekend include DUI patrols in Auburn, Roseville, West Sacramento, Woodland and Davis; and checkpoints Saturday in Winters and Sunday at an undisclosed location in Placer County.

DUI enforcement is meant to be preventive – "a public awareness campaign rather than a ticketing campaign," Cochran said.

"We're not telling people not to go out and have a good time," said CHP Valley Division spokesman Officer Adrian Quintero. "We just want them to be responsible."

Officials said the best strategy is to plan ahead and designate a sober driver before getting on the road.

Too often, Quintero said, a group chooses a designated driver based on whoever has consumed the least amount of alcohol. The most common excuse heard from drunken drivers, he said, is that they "felt they were OK to drive."

Those who find themselves in no condition to drive home should take a taxi or call a friend to come pick them up, said Brenda Frachiseur, assistant executive director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving in California.

There are also companies that provide safe and sober drivers for a fee, Frachiseur said. Locally, such services are provided by companies like Last Call Sacramento and the Ohio-based Be My Designated Driver, which opened shop in Sacramento last week.

Those companies offer to pick you up and take you home – and bring a second driver to transport your car.

"That's one of the … reasons why people get in their vehicle in the first place – they say, 'I don't want to leave my car here' or 'I don't have family or friends to call,' " said Alexa Milkovich, co-owner of BeMyDD.

"This way, there's really no excuse," she said.

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