Celebrating Super Bowl Sunday with friends and drinks is common practice. But, getting behind the wheel after doing so is what law enforcement fears most.
The California Highway Patrol said drunk driving killed 12 people last year, and injured 167. That's four times the number for a typical day in California. Officers arrested more than 400 drivers for D.U.I.'s last year.
"As you can see everyone is having a good time, but you always gotta make sure someone can get home safe. Cops are out there. They're cracking down," said John Rutherford of Fresno.
The Parlier Police Department, with the help of several different agencies, set up a D.U.I. checkpoint Sunday night.
The checkpoint and its location were advertised in the paper. Still, officers made five D.U.I. arrests, compared to three last year; most of which were well above the legal limit.
"They've all been a .11 or higher. The highest we got was a .21, so that tells me they've been drinking for a while and a lot of them are drinking hard liquor too," said Allen Charles with the Parlier Police Department.
Making matters worse, said officers, are the unpredictable weather conditions, especially driving while drunk in the fog.
The Fresno Police Department was out as well with saturation patrols reiterating a common theme among law enforcement.
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