NewsLocal News

Actions

Lehi police kick off holiday weekend with DUI checkpoint

Posted at 10:06 PM, May 24, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-25 00:06:59-04

LEHI, Utah — Lehi Police are kicking off the first holiday weekend of the summer with a sobriety checkpoint on a heavily traveled road in Utah County.

From 10 p.m. Friday to 2 a.m. Saturday, cars will be stopped on both sides of Pioneer Crossing near 600 East to be vetted by officers. Police will approach each car and look for signs of alcohol or drug impairment.

If a driver is not impaired, they will be allowed to drive through. If a driver is impaired, they will be pulled aside for a field sobriety test and, if need be, arrested or cited.

“Our whole goal is to prevent people from driving under the influence in the first place, so anything we can do to get the word out, you know, ‘Hey, driving under the influence is unacceptable ... find a different way to get home,'” said Sergeant Bill Loveridge with Lehi City Police Department.

They said each interaction should only take between 15 and 20 seconds. If traffic starts to build up, they will "flush" out traffic and let all of the waiting cars pass.

“We don’t want to take too much time out of everybody’s lives tonight. Our whole goal is to see if we can get some people who are under the influence off of the roadway,” Loveridge said.

Lehi Police hold sobriety checkpoints twice a year. They said they typically see between one and three arrests, but their goal is always zero.