Crime & Safety

CHP Asks Parents to Be Vigilant Against Underage DUI This Holiday Season

Marin CHP released their third quarter DUI statistics; one-third of citations have gone to drivers under the age of 21.

As we head into the holiday months including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Winter Break, Christmas and New Year’s, Marin County Sheriff’s want parents to be proactive in preventing underage DUI potentials.

Recently released, third-quarter statistics from CHP, report a decrease in underage DUI arrests from 2012, however one-third of the citations given so far this year have been to drivers under the age of 19.

Out of 30 total arrests in 2013, 11 of them have been under the legal drinking age of 21; 20 of the 40-overall arrests in 2012 were under 21.

Find out what's happening in Mill Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

During this quarter, four were female, three were residents outside of Marin County and three arrests were due to the DUI driver being involved in a collision. The youngest arrestees were two 17-year-old males both from San Rafael and a 17-year-old female from Novato.

“We want parents vigilant to the activities of their teens and pre-teens who will be requesting to leave home during evening hours for parties and other gatherings,” CHP said in a press release, “set strict and early curfews for their children. Returning college freshmen who may be visiting home for the first time since leaving for college will want to test their new independence and stay out late with old friends also home on break.”

Find out what's happening in Mill Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

CHP states that they usually see an increase in DUI arrests and alcohol possession citations in the 18 to 20 age group with this demographic and that this will also be a time of year when parents leave town for vacations and leave teens unsupervised, resulting in house parties that involve drug and alcohol use.

Marin CHP is getting ready for several Maximum Enforcement periods this time of year and asks that parents and community get involved to help prevent collisions where distracted driving, lack of passenger restraint use, moving violations, and impaired driving could be factors resulting in injuries and deaths to our young people in Marin County.

The California Highway Patrol maintains a zero tolerance approach to underage drinking, impaired driving, drug use and possession and provisional teen driver’s license restriction violations.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.