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| By Wally Pickford |
| Daily Californian staff writer |
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SAN DIEGO—Drinking and crossing the
borders don’t mix, especially this weekend, as a coalition of cops, volunteers and
business owners collaborate in a compassionate crackdown on drunken behaviors.
Beginning tonight and Saturday from 8:30
p.m. till 5 a.m., the California Highway Patrol will launch an 18-month intensified
anti-drunken driving enforcement effort on Interstate 5 and 805.
The San Diego Police Department is also
participating in the random stop and DUI Checkpoint approach to cars northbound from
Mexico.
The goal of the multi-agency campaign,
however, is not to make arrests, but to prevent accidents and discourage overindulgence,
particularly among local teens planning to take advantage of Mexico’s
less-than-hardball approach to teenage drinking. |
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The minimum age
to drink in Mexico is 18. It’s 21 in the United States.
Coordinated by the non-profit Institute for
Health Advocacy using $200,000-plus in public funding, the "Operation Safe Crossing
" program includes volunteers and business elements.
The volunteers, Mexican and American, will
stake out the San Ysidro border area, handing out warning fliers to pedestrians and cars
occupied by young people.
Several nightclubs in Tijuana have offered
to provide free soft drinks to designated drivers, said Mary Ann Dunwell, spokeswoman for
the coalition.
The designated drivers must display an
approved hand stamp, available in either the border Station Parking lot or the Arco gas
station, off the last Interstate 5 exit en route to Tijuana.
Designated drivers are also promised free
coffee at the Arco station. |