This Cinco de Mayo, plan your sober ride home before the party begins. Drivers are encouraged to download the Designated Driver VIP, (DDVIP) free mobile app for Android or iPhone. The app helps find nearby bars and restaurants that feature free incentives for the designated sober driver, from free, non-alcoholic drinks, to free appetizers and more. The feature packed app even has social media tie-ins and even a tab for the non-DD to call Uber, Lyft or Curb.

Unfortunately, during the Cinco de Mayo holiday, there have been deadly consequences due to buzzed, drunk, and drugged driving. Forty people were killed in impaired driving crashes across the nation during the Cinco de Mayo holiday period in 2016, and 270 were killed from 2011-2015. Annually, in California, alcohol involved collisions have led to numerous deaths and injuries because someone failed to designate a sober driver. There has also been a disturbing increase in drug-impaired driving crashes in California and across the nation.

Officers from the San Gabriel Police Department's DUI Enforcement Team will deploy this weekend beginning Friday, May 5, between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. in areas with high frequencies of DUI collisions and/or arrests. The effort is designed to stop and arrest alcohol and drug-impaired drivers. The deployment will include high visibility enforcement using both DUI checkpoints and DUI saturation patrols. Research shows crashes involving an impaired driver can be reduced by up to 20 percent when well-publicized proactive DUI operations are conducted routinely.

Click here to see the news release.