Expect to see California Highway Patrol this Labor Day weekend in Humboldt County

This weekend, hundreds of thousands of drivers will take to the roads for the Labor Day holiday. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) will start a maximum enforcement period with all available officers on duty, today through Monday night.

“We’re going to be focusing specifically on DUI violations, also violations that are more likely to result in traffic collisions,” said Matt Harvey, the CHP Sergeant in Arcata. “So speed would be an obvious one and similar type violations.”

What officers will look for while out on the road is weaving, driving too slow, driving too fast and how people make turns.

“We look for things such as when a vehicle’s making a turn–am I taking too wide of a turn might go over a curb those types of things,” Sergeant Harvey said. “We also want to encourage the public that if they see signs that that looks like somebody may be drinking and should be checked out to call 911.”

CHP also wants you to be aware of “buzzed” driving, which is just as dangerous. According to Sergeant Harvey, every year statewide, they see major injuries and fatal traffic collisions related to DUIs.

“Oftentimes when we pull somebody over for DUI, the answer that they give us is that they thought they were okay to drive and most people will say that and so we just want to remind people that if you have any question if you’ve been drinking at all, you’re safest is not to drive,” Sergeant Harvey said. 

People need to make sure that you have somebody pre-designated to get you where you need to go who hasn’t been drinking so that we can all be safe on the roads. If people get arrested for a DUI it means going to jail, getting your car towed, driver’s license being suspended and your insurance price going up. Officers also want you to be careful driving unknown roads.

“When you’re driving Humboldt County roadways, some of these roadways can be very unforgiving–it’s the last thing we want to do is respond to a traffic collision where somebody has been hurt or killed,” Sergeant Harvey said. “So we just want to remind the public to slow down, please be patient, especially when you’re driving through this corridor.”