CHP Plans Busy New Year’s Holiday : Law enforcement: Patrols will be looking for suspected drunk drivers. Those who are caught face new, stiffer penalties.

The California Highway Patrol will be out in force looking for drunk drivers over the New Year’s holiday weekend, as usual, but armed with new, stiffer penalties for those who get caught.

A state law that takes effect Tuesday requires the minimum 48-hour jail term for most drunk drivers be served continuously. Previously, the mandatory jail sentence was often reduced to a few hours, waived altogether or broken up into shorter terms because of jail overcrowding.

Although the full 48 hours must be spent locked up, the sentence may be served on days when the guilty drunk driver is normally off work.

Also on Jan. 1, a new jail sentence of 60 days is added for drunk drivers who drive recklessly. The law presumes recklessness for any driver who exceeds the freeway speed limit by 30 m.p.h. or other speed limits by 20 m.p.h.

“Every year the tolerance for drunk drivers is being lowered,” said Sgt. Mike Brey, a CHP spokesman in Los Angeles.

As usual on the year-end holiday, the freeways will be crawling with CHP cars. At least 70% of all CHP officers will be deployed, many of them with special orders to target possible drunks.

In various spots throughout Southern California, the CHP plans to set up drunk driving checkpoints.

In the Los Angeles area, roving teams of CHP officers specializing in spotting drunk drivers will patrol from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. during the holiday, Brey said. They will be equipped with hand-held breath analysis devices for giving drivers sobriety tests.

In many communities, local police will join in the effort.

Orange County will mount an especially intense effort in Costa Mesa, for example, where police will boost their special drunk driving patrol ninefold on New Year’s Eve.

Nine two-officer police cars will patrol the city Monday night, exclusively to look for drunk drivers. They will be aided by a police helicopter that will spot erratic driving from the air, said Sgt. Tom Winter.

A special police van will pick up the suspected offenders and transport them to the city jail, enabling patrol officers to remain on the streets. The program, in its third year, resulted in 46 drunk driving arrests last year, more than half of the arrests made in Orange County on New Year’s Eve.

A law that took effect statewide last January made it more difficult for drivers leaving a party or a bar to pass the roadside sobriety tests given by CHP officers.

Drivers are now presumed to be intoxicated if their blood alcohol level is higher than 0.08%, even if they can pass the sobriety tests given at the roadside by CHP officers.

Before, a level of 0.10% was needed for the presumption of guilt. In San Diego, for example, about 10% of driving-under-the-influence arrests have been of drivers who fell under the new tougher standard, said CHP spokesman Phil Konstantin.

Statewide, drunk driving arrests have climbed about 15% this year, and accidents in which alcohol was a factor also rose. But fatal accidents have declined, Brey said, perhaps because more motorists wearing seat belts.

“Probably the safest defense against a drunk driver on New Year’s Eve--or any other time--is to wear your seat belt,” Brey said.

Over the Christmas holiday, 24 of the 30 motorists killed on California highways were not wearing seat belts. CHP officers estimated that 18 of the 24 fatalities would have survived if they had worn belts.