Costa Mesa Holds Back-to-Back DUI Checkpoints

​The Costa Mesa Police Department hopes one good sobriety checkpoint deserves another.

From 6 tonight to midnight Thursday, officers will stop vehicles in the 2300 block of Placentia Avenue and check to ensure drivers are licensed and not under the influence of something.

Another operation runs from 6 p.m. Thursday to midnight Friday at Anton Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue.

"The checkpoint locations were selected because two lives were lost to DUI collisions at these locations over the past three years," reads a statement from Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Dave Makiyama. "Since January 2008, DUI collisions in Costa Mesa have killed two people and injured 260 more."

He warns that those who fail field sobriety tests can expect "jail, vehicle storage fees, license suspension, insurance rate increases, along with fines, fees, DUI classes [and] other expenses that can exceed $10,000."

Illustration by Jay Brockman/OC Weekly

Don't drink like a fish . . . two nights in a row.

​As in other cities, the operation is funded a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.