Yolo County’s “Avoid the 8″ drunken-driving task force embarks Friday on an 18-day “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign that will include roving patrols, a warrant sweep and DUI checkpoints.

“Obviously, we want to remind everyone that it is illegal to drive impaired, and we hope the campaign will remind people that if they plan on drinking, to never get behind the wheel,” said Woodland police Sgt. Tom Davis, task force coordinator. “But if someone does choose to drive impaired, we will arrest them. No warnings. No excuses.”

Yolo County’s police departments, Sheriff’s Department, Probation Department and California Highway Patrol office are participating in the crackdown, with the CHP deploying all of its available officers onto local freeways and county roadways during the Labor Day holiday weekend, Commander Dale Cannon said.

The campaign begins at 7 p.m. Saturday with a sobriety and driver’s license checkpoint in the city of Woodland. A second is planned for the night of Sept. 1 in Davis.

Saturation patrols will descend on Woodland and Winters on Sunday night, and on West Sacramento on the night of Saturday, Aug. 25. They continue in rural Yolo County Sept. 1-3, as well as in Woodland and Winters on Sept. 2.

Also, through Sept. 2, officers will conduct DUI warrant and probation sweeps throughout the county. In Yolo Superior Court, undercover officers will be watching to see whether convicted DUI offenders who are ordered not to drive leave the Woodland courthouse by car anyway.

According to Davis, alcohol-related crashes in which the driver was above the legal limit of 0.08 were to blame for 791 deaths in California in 2010. Drivers ages 21 to 24 had the highest percentage of alcohol-impaired driving fatalities.

DUI drivers face jail time, loss of their driver’s licenses, or being sentenced to use ignition interlocks. Their insurance rates go up. Other financial hits include attorney fees, court costs, lost time at work, and the potential loss of job or job prospects. When family, friends and co-workers find out, violators can also face tremendous personal embarrassment and humiliation.

“On average there is one alcohol-impaired driving-related fatality every 51 minutes across America. But this tragic loss of life can be reduced if we get impaired drivers off our roadways,” Davis said. He noted that high-visibility enforcement efforts can reduce alcohol-related driving fatalities by as much as 20 percent.

“By joining this statewide effort, we will make Yolo County’s roadways safer for everyone throughout the Labor Day period,” Davis said.

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