Sheriff’s Designated Driver Plan Starts in Time for New Year’s

Just in time for New Year’s Eve, sheriff’s officials are launching what they say is the San Gabriel Valley’s first designated driver program.

So far, coordinators say, three City of Industry restaurants have signed up to participate: Garcia’s, Peppers and Que Pasa.

When the program is in full swing, restaurants and bars in six cities are expected to participate, said Deputy Kelly Matthews, who is coordinating the effort from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department substation in City of Industry.

Here’s how it works. Servers in cooperating restaurants ask whether one person at a table would be willing to abstain from alcohol and serve as driver for others in the party. The designated driver then is rewarded with free non-alcoholic drinks for the rest of the evening or with a free dessert or perhaps a small button, redeemable for free services at participating businesses like the Walnut Valley Car Wash.

Servers are being trained to handle one of the program’s potentially sticky problems: What to do when a designated driver backslides and is seen sipping from others’ drinks? The answer: Take back the freebies and put those soft drinks back on the tab.

Matthews said the program is designed to provide undecided people with a reason to choose not to drink.

“People sometimes don’t want to do something unless they get an instant response,” he said. But he acknowledged that it will not deter people who have already made up their minds to get drunk. “If someone goes out solely to drink, then nothing will stop him,” Matthews said. “We’ll just get him on the road.”

According to California Highway Patrol statistics, 522 people were killed in Los Angeles County in alcohol-related accidents in 1988, and 18,014 were injured.

“If we can stop even one fatality, the program will be successful,” Matthews said.

By New Year’s Eve, Matthews expects to have signed up seven more restaurants in the City of Industry. But the program does not end with the holidays, and he hopes more establishments will join as time goes by.

He also is coordinating with police officials in Azusa, Baldwin Park, Covina, Glendora and West Covina, who will be targeting restaurants in their jurisdictions. And on a larger scale, Matthews said, the CHP is trying to launch a similar effort statewide.

Still, for those who do not respond to the sweet enticements of designated-driver programs, local law enforcement authorities also have another kind of approach in mind for the upcoming New Year’s holiday.

City of Industry streets will be patrolled by a drunk-driving task force made up of four deputy sheriffs and four CHP officers. The two agencies paired up for similar patrols on Memorial Day and Labor Day.

For the three nights before New Year’s Day, the Temple City sheriff’s substation is sending extra cars to patrol its contract cities: Temple City, Duarte, Rosemead and South El Monte.

And between Christmas and New Year’s, La Verne police are doubling their drunk-driving enforcement team to four units. The San Dimas sheriff’s substation is turning its three one-officer traffic units into two-officer units. This will speed processing in drunk driving arrests, Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Dearmore said.

West Covina officials are not sending out any units to supplement their usual three DUI enforcement cars. In Pomona, no special New Year’s Eve enforcement is planned, police said.

Pasadena and South Pasadena authorities said operations will continue as usual in most parts of their cities, but police presence will be intensified with the influx of 1,110 officers from surrounding jurisdictions on hand to police the big crowds expected for the Tournament of Roses parade and Rose Bowl game.

The reinforcements will patrol heavily traveled areas, including Colorado Boulevard, which is the parade route, and Fair Oaks Avenue, the main access road to Colorado.