DUI checkpoint Saturday | Napa Valley Register

The California Highway Patrol will hold a checkpoint Saturday evening.

Officers will be looking for drunken drivers, and those driving with a suspended license or no license at all, the CHP said.

The checkpoint will be in an undisclosed location somewhere in Napa County.

It is paid for through money from the California Office of Traffic Safety.

30 comment(s)

JustAnotherManicMonday wrote on Sep 23, 2009 7:35 AM:

" Hopefully near a winery or bar this time? "

crooked6pence wrote on Sep 23, 2009 8:40 AM:

" Gotta make that Dolla'! "

Froggie1559 wrote on Sep 23, 2009 8:50 AM:

" You go Napa P.D.! I fully support these checkpoints. Any scofflaws we can get off the road, the better! "

realitybites wrote on Sep 23, 2009 10:05 AM:

" How about instead of "evening" the checkpoint operate at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday between Yountville and St. Helena? I guess the CHP are more concerned with catching local citizens than they are with preventing drunk driving. "

crooked6pence wrote on Sep 23, 2009 11:23 AM:

" Froggie1559, did you even read the article?

You go Napa P.D.?

The article is about the California Highway Patrol, a State agency, not the City Police...

Keep up the cheer leading though; rah, rah, rah. "

Froggie1559 wrote on Sep 23, 2009 1:00 PM:

" CHP, sorry. I support any agency that does these checkpoints. "

reality1 wrote on Sep 23, 2009 1:00 PM:

" "realitybites"- You may get your wish. This one won't be in the City of Napa. It will be in the county somewhere. By the way, I doubt that all the drunk drivers in Napa County are tourists, but placing a checkpoint in the county has the probablity of finding some. "

Cowboy wrote on Sep 23, 2009 2:33 PM:

" Careful now. We wouldn't want to upset the winery owners by scaring their tourists away from wine tasting. "

realitybites wrote on Sep 23, 2009 3:00 PM:

" No I won't get my wish - the DUI checkpoint won't be up until well after the wineries close. I never said "all" drunk drivers are tourists. The point is the Napa Valley THRIVES on drunk drivers. How do you get to the winery and then to another winery - YOU DRIVE. Support law enforcement that doesn't selectively enforce the laws to target local citizenry. Do you see any out of state persons listed on the DUI gossip page? Very few. Wanna seriously curtail drunk driving - put up a check point outside of the wineries at 2:30 p.m. - not 9 at night. "

golfpro wrote on Sep 23, 2009 4:31 PM:

" Why don't they ever do DUI check points on the trail or HWY 29 during the day on a weekend? That's when the the real action hits the road and then I have to drive behind them going 30 mph on a 55 mph road. If you are reading this, and are planning on going wine tasting this weekend.......pick your winery out early and use your blinker at the appropriate turn instead of letting it run for 4 miles and you continue to hit the brakes to find your next gold mine. "

random name here wrote on Sep 23, 2009 6:48 PM:

" Per "Ingersoll vs. Palmer":

Checkpoints must have high visibility, and it is not illegal to avoid them as long as doing so violates no vehicle codes or exibits signs of intoxication.

Advance notice to the public is required, although there is no requirement to disclose the specific location. It must be conducted in an area prone to high incidence of alcohol-related accidents or arrests.

Officers must establish a mathmatical procedure for stopping vehicles. i.e. every vehicle, every 3rd, 5th, 8th vehicle etc. "

rz1 wrote on Sep 24, 2009 12:15 PM:

" COWBOY>>>>>GOOD ONE!!! "

amazed wrote on Sep 24, 2009 2:42 PM:

" No, Cowboy, but we do want to scare the tourists away from drinking and driving. I suspect they wouldn't do it at home, but somehow they figure it's okay in "wine country." For crying out loud, book a tour, have someone else do the driving, and drink all you want! We want them spending money at the wineries and shops, not the court. "

ctworker wrote on Sep 24, 2009 4:50 PM:

" The reason CHP doesn't put a DUI checkpoint on highway 29 or silverado trail is because it would cause a serious hazard to suddenly have traffic stopped in the middle of a roadway with the posted speedlimit is 55mph or more. C'mon, a little bit of common sense here. And i find it a little hard to believe that the DUI arrests are "selective". Being arrested for DUI doesn't seem to stop anyone else from being arrested for a DUI so why would it curtail tourists from visiting area? I don't understand all the conspiracy theories. "

crooked6pence wrote on Sep 24, 2009 4:54 PM:

" good info random name here! "

pinkflame wrote on Sep 24, 2009 7:47 PM:

" they have done a DUI checkpoint on 29, months ago "

JustAnotherManicMonday wrote on Sep 25, 2009 8:39 AM:

" Usually the checkpoints are on Lincoln Street, or at Napa High School. It'd be nice to have it in a higher traffic area, where people are leaving restaurants and wineries. How about 29 at Yountville after the stoplight or before? they can hit up some tourists there. "

realitybites wrote on Sep 25, 2009 9:20 AM:

" Then put up traffic controls ctworker - You'll probably get some OT out of it. Talk about getting come common sense - they serve WINE which is alcohol at wineries - tourists drink and drive when they are here tasting. Do you see the names of out of state residents on the DUI scarlet letter list posted in the NVR every month? Very few - coincidence? I think not. "

cheezcakemaker wrote on Sep 25, 2009 10:42 AM:

" Another award wininng piece of journalism!

As always, who, what, when, WHERE and why. "

reason-ator wrote on Sep 25, 2009 1:06 PM:

" All they have to do if they want to put a checkpoint on 29 is to put it just past an intersection with a traffic light. Set the traffic light to flash red so everyone has to stop.

Obviously, there is some conjecture that a conscious effort is being made to not discourage tourism by inconveniencing the drivers who have over-tasted with a DUI checkpoint. In fact, workers from wineries have been here and cited the lack of out-of-town drivers on the gossip-list shows how wonderful the tourists that the wineries attract are. I'm not buying it. "

amazed wrote on Sep 25, 2009 1:06 PM:

" Uh, cheezcakemaker ... if they print the location, people would avoid it ... uh ... "

Piquemyinterest wrote on Sep 25, 2009 4:03 PM:

" These check points are good in that they get illegals off the road and sent back to Mexico, they take unlicensed drivers off the road, and they also get people who have drugs and alcohol as well. A triple play for sure. Good job Napa Police!!! "

ao1982 wrote on Sep 25, 2009 6:07 PM:

" Lincoln Avenue in front of Lincoln Apartments and/or Jefferson Street. Its the same all the time. Whats the point of not telling?

--Armando "

ao1982 wrote on Sep 26, 2009 3:50 PM:

" I'll be taking a cab tonight. Its much cheaper. Black tie, 259-1000 "

sunny wrote on Sep 26, 2009 7:35 PM:

" I just passed it going in the opposite direction. It looked like they were just starting the checks and traffic was really backing up already. "

Napa local wrote on Sep 26, 2009 8:20 PM:

" Since I feel that checkpoints are unconstitutional, I could care less what the supreme court says ( police need a reason to pull anyone over, random stops are not acceptable) it is on hey 29 going south, just south of Yountville. "

justmeandyou wrote on Sep 26, 2009 9:20 PM:

" well well to the person that think the illegal people need's to be send back to mexico just because they are driving with out driver licence some people drive for necesity not for fun about the drunk drivers i think CHP is doing a very good job keep it up' "

JJtoob wrote on Sep 26, 2009 10:57 PM:

" Undocumented immigrants don't usually get sent back to mexico unless they have more problems with the law. It's the police, not the INS. Also, those who are hitting every winery probably have a driver, at least the ones I've sen do. The fact NVR post this article with little info is because it would render the checkpoint useless. They are both only required and allowed to give that much info. Same as they can't inform us of the name of a criminal under 18; legal requirements. And cars are capable of stopping from going at any speed (velocity), provided they have enough time (distance) to do it, otherwise they would all crash on 29 and 121, well some still crash, but not out of lack of advance notice via flashing yellow lights and signs. "

JustAnotherManicMonday wrote on Sep 28, 2009 2:59 PM:

" So how did the checkpoint do? Did they actually get anyone with a DUI, or just illegal registrations? "

oldtownnapa wrote on Sep 28, 2009 11:42 PM:

" The checkpoint was north of Napa on Hwy 29 at Oak Knoll Road. It started after 7:30 p.m. If you check out localcrimenews.com you can see there are four DUI arrest charges for 9/27 in the City of Napa- either from that checkpoint or elsewhere around Napa that night-gives you some idea anyway... NVR could you please provide a follow up article on the outcome? Thx. "

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