Sobriety checks are set up after Pinellas is named one of 10 counties where most of Florida's alcohol-related crashes occur.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published October 29, 2003
More than 60 percent of Florida's alcohol-related auto crashes occur in only 10 of the state's 67 counties.
Pinellas is one of those 10.
To combat drunken driving, Pinellas sheriff's deputies will conduct sobriety checkpoints this week.
The first will be from 8:15 to 11:15 p.m. today at the intersection of Gulf Boulevard and 137th Avenue in Madeira Beach. The second will start 75 minutes after the first one ends, at 12:30 a.m. Thursday, in the 7800 block of Seminole Boulevard in Seminole. That checkpoint will last until 3:30 a.m.
Sheriff's deputies chose those areas because they experience frequent auto accidents and drunken driving, said Detective Tim Goodman, a Sheriff's Office spokesman.
The checkpoints are part of a push by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to combat drunken driving in 13 states.
The Florida Department of Transportation, with a grant from the Institute of Police Technology and Management, is targeting the 10 Florida counties where 60.3 percent of the state's alcohol-related crashes occur.
The other nine are Brevard, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach and Volusia.
Law enforcement agencies in Lake Wales, Miami and Miramar also are conducting checkpoints this holiday week.
In Pinellas, about 20 deputies will participate in the sobriety checkpoints, in which motorists will be observed for signs they are impaired by alcohol or drugs. Deputies also will look for other traffic or equipment violations.
