Deputies plan DWI checkpoint

Santa Fe County sheriff ’s deputies will begin holiday weekend anti-DWI enforcement efforts with a sobriety checkpoint Friday night, and the city police department will beef up patrols.

AAA New Mexico, meanwhile, says it will offer Tipsy Tow service for imbibers on New Year’s Eve.

The sheriff ’s office said in a news release that the checkpoint will be set up at an unspecified location in central Santa Fe County.

Deputies will look for impaired drivers and “intensify enforcement of all traffic infractions,” the statement said. “The increased law enforcement presence including DWI and traffic enforcement units will continue throughout the evening hours on December 29.”

Santa Fe police spokesman Greg Gurulé said in an email that the department would be adding 66 officers to the streets over the New Year’s weekend, with DWI enforce-

ment efforts in “areas that have a high number of traffic accidents and DWI stops.”

Increased enforcement will run from Friday evening through Monday, the statement said.

AAA New Mexico said in a news release that it encourages everyone of legal drinking age who plans to have alcoholic beverages to celebrate New Year’s Eve to designate a nondrinking driver, call for a ride service, or plan an overnight stay before having their first drink.

However, “as a last resort,” the auto club will offer a free statewide service called Tipsy Tow, which aims to keep drinking drivers off the road.

From 6 p.m. Sunday through 6 a.m. Monday, drivers, bartenders, restaurant managers, party hosts or passengers of a drinking driver may call 800-222-4357 (800-AAA-HELP) to request a free tow home of up to 10 miles. For longer distances, drivers should expect to pay the rate charged by the tow truck operator for the excess mileage.

You don’t have to be a AAA member to use the service, which provides only for a oneway, one-time ride home for a driver and tow for that driver’s vehicle.